


Born To Keep History

by Mereth



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Ice Skating, Alternate Universe - Office, Anxious Katsuki Yuuri, Big Bang!!! on Ice, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-20 23:46:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mereth/pseuds/Mereth
Summary: Yuuri Katsuki has always wanted to be a Time Agent, the ones among all the staff at United Nation’s Time Agency who travel through Time and ensure History is preserved as we know it. Sadly he failed catastrophically his final mission and ashamed, he gave up,  decided to be a paper pusher the rest of his career. Or that was the plan until star agent Victor Nikiforov becomes his trainer officer.Now he has to survive the training without embarassing himself or Victor, work  fixing Time without messing up again and help Victor find out what is going on inside the Agency that mess with History itself.(Or Yuuri and Victor are Time Cops and everything is at the same time easier and more complicated than Yuuri expected)Written for Big Bang On Ice 2018.





	1. A Waste of Time

**Author's Note:**

> The story is inspired by a Spanish TV series called the Ministry of Time (you can watch it on Netflix if you are curious) but I have changed it so much you don't need to have watched to understand this fic.
> 
> Thanks to the mods of Big Bang on Ice for the hard work, to the bboi discord and all the blob family I found there. There was always someone to help, listen or hide under a blanket with you. Thank you so much, I wouldn't have finished this story without you all. Special thanks to Bee and Squeeze for betaing (any mistakes that remain are mine) and to Roa, Ren and Catesu for the pun brainstorming to find a title for this fic.  
> Thanks to my artists [Twigs](https://twiglightdragon.tumblr.com) and Pome for pinch hitting for my fic and producing amazing art. You can find their art posts here: [Twigs'](https://twiglightdragon.tumblr.com/post/171137976665/do-you-know-what-i-want-to-do-again-victor) and Pome's (pending)  
> Also to end for the beginning thanks to Ela and Val, the enablers who made me watch YoI in the first place, my first readers and the ones who had been holding my hand and enabling me since I said "well, I may have done something crazy. _Again_. Like signing for a big bang."

_ My name is Katsuki Yuuri and I’m a Japanese paper-pusher working abroad. I know that may seem strange but in reality it isn’t. _

Yuuri snorted whilst looking at the diary he had in front of him. He had very little to do at work that day and he was bored. So he’d decided to follow his therapist’s advice and try to keep some kind of diary. He was aware it was to figure out what was triggering him, but a tiny, sardonic part of him hadn’t been able to avoid starting it like that. He wasn’t even sure this would work at all. Therapy sounded like a good idea in theory, but it really wasn’t that useful when he couldn’t explain what he did for a living and why not living up to his goals was depressing him so much.

But then, not many would believe that people could travel to the past, and that there was an UN agency ensuring it was done correctly. Nor would they believe you could walk past it every day as it was hidden in plain sight in the middle of very touristic Barcelona, in a glass blue office building that everybody said had a strange dildo-like form.

(To be fair that was something Christophe Giacometti said.  _ Loudly _ . Every time he entered the building. But he was right. It  _ was _ a bit embarrassing to be there.)

Yuuri didn’t live too far from the office, in a small flat shared with his friend —and until a few months ago teammate— Phichit. It had been fun to go to work together and be in the same team, but after Yuuri failed so badly at his mission, he had decided to change jobs to avoid being an embarrassment to Celestino —the supervisor who had given him the chance to work at the main Headquarters— things had started to change for Phichit too and nowadays he barely spent time at home.  

Whilst everyone in the Agency were technically Time Officers, for Yuuri the  _ real _ ones were the Field Agents; the ones who travelled through time making sure History kept being what it had always been. Phichit, who used to be his team’s researcher, had switched to Intelligence to lead  his own team and was already making a name for himself. His team, his ‘Hamsters’ as he called them to everybody’s chagrin, were already becoming known as the team to go to if you needed to find out quickly what wasn’t happening as it should. Nobody could search through files and social media to find what was being altered faster than them. There wasn’t a single network or system that could keep its secrets if Phichit and his team were set on discovering them.

Yuuri was sure that Phichit would soon become a priceless asset for the Time Intelligence division.

(To be fair, he could probably rule the world if he ever decided he wanted to. He was  _ that _ good.)

Meanwhile _ , he  _ was a failure who had tanked his chance to be a Field Agent. Now he would only get to experience what happened in missions through other’s paperwork and rumours in the corridors. Changing areas had meant he didn’t even get access to mission reports anymore; not the raw versions that contained all the adventures happening in different ages. Those had always been over his pay grade but he had enjoyed being able to read the watered-down versions from the performance evaluations, and the agent’s reports that he needed to summarise for the higher-ups. And now, even those were out of his reach. 

Now, his only source of news at work was Phichit’s visits to gossip about what the Field Agents and their counterparts in Intelligence had gotten up to. It was the brightest part of his day at work, especially if the rumor-mill involved Victor Nikiforov’s latest adventures. Those were so infamous, that there was a betting pool about how much hair Director Feltsman was losing because of his shenanigans. 

Yuuri was self-aware enough to know he had a bit of a crush on the Russian man, but he was only human. He dared anyone who had seen or read what Victor Nikiforov did during missions, to not feel the same. Nikiforov was the Agency’s star operative. The dashing agent who managed to solve his missions even when the odds were against him. The one who got sent alone to the dangerous ones that nobody sane would take and accomplished them. Not only successfully, but making them seem  _ easy. _ Like it was a stroll in the park instead of something close to  suicide.

And Yuuri? Yuuri had thought he could do the same.  That he— the dime in a dozen Japanese salaryman— could be a real Time Officer like Victor Nikiforov. Perhaps even  _ work _ with him.    
That’s why he had trained and studied hard, passed the exams and training missions, looking for the day he could take on his first mission as a Field Agent; always looking ahead and making plans to be in the same department as the Russian, and perhaps even share a mission with him.

But the first time he had gone out on his own in the field, he had been so nervous that he had messed up. He had screwed an easy mission up  _ so badly _ that they’d had to send someone else to fix his mistake. And, of course, because that wasn’t humiliating enough and Yuuri’s luck was always the worst, it had to be Victor Nikiforov who’d come to help him get a man called Dunant on the right train.

The train that would take him to northern Italy the same day the Austrian army fought the French. The battle where so many people died, that Dunant was inspired to create what  would later be called the Red Cross. It nearly hadn’t happened because Yuuri had been so nervous that he hadn’t checked the time and had distracted Dunant so much he had missed the train he was planning to take  _ and  _ the one he had taken according to History. They had to rush to take it and if Victor hadn’t been sent to delay the train, Dunant would have missed it and everything would have changed, making it likely that the Red Cross would never have existed.

Yuuri could feel his face flushing with embarrassment and shame just thinking about it. He nearly had cost people’s lives because he was a failure who couldn’t focus on his job and do something as simple as look at his watch to check if everything was happening on time. He had let everyone down. His supervisor and mentor Minako, who had introduced him to the Agency… everyone who had trusted him when he said he could work in the United Nation’s Time Organization.

He had tried to reach too high and the fall to the ground had been hard and had nearly  taken other people with him. It was better if he gave up. That’s why when he came back, he talked to his boss Celestino and asked for a move to another department, which was granted as soon as was possible. Perhaps his new job at Records wasn’t as interesting;  he didn’t get to experience missions, not even second-hand, but at least people didn’t get hurt because of him.

It was safer. It was best for all the people involved.

Of course, Yuuri should have known better than to think that. He had jinxed himself but that was something he would realise later. 

For now, he was just in a room with few windows in the lower levels of the UN’s Time Organization Headquarters trying to get a package of information ready for an agent so they didn’t mess up like Yuuri did. Unless they forgot all Yuuri told them about their mission and the context, like  _ he _ had.

The Japanese man shook his head trying to forget that moment. Reminding himself that ironically, nothing had happened, nothing had changed, and History kept the path it had always done. But it was a bit frustrating to remember he had missed his chance, and that he had made a fool of himself in front of Victor Nikiforov, the one guy he had wanted to prove himself to, and that now never would. Big time officers like Victor Nikiforov never went to the underground levels where Records was kept. In fact nobody did. The floor was full of shelves, storage rooms and small offices for the staff. The good thing about not being a very demanded position, was that for once Yuuri had his own office, not like what he had on the higher floors, where positions were so in demand the only space you could have was a desk lumped together with your team’s. This wasn’t attractive  _ or _ interesting to anyone, unless they needed some kind of clarification about the data in a dossier.  Yuuri was the only one on the floor to get visits and that was because the phone signal wasn’t great in the basement, and Phichit couldn’t wait until they reached their flat to tell him the day’s gossip.

The sound of his door opening made Yuuri raise his head. He was ready to tell Phichit off for interrupting him again, when he nearly choked on air. There, in his small office in the Records department, was Victor Nikiforov. Looking at him with interest; like he was some kind of puzzle waiting to be solved.

“A-agent Nikiforov,” Yuuri stammered, trying to remember what he had messed up to make it necessary for the Russian to be there. “Do you need anything?”

The Russian smiled and offered a hand with a sheet of paper. Yuuri glanced at it, observing from the seals that it had come from Director Feltsman, before whipping his head up in surprise at hearing Victor’s words.

“Yuuri Katsuki, from now on I’m your training officer.”

“WHAT?” Yuuri exclaimed before shaking his head frantically. “But, but, I’ve given that up. That’s why I’m in Records.”

Victor frowned looking at the rest of the papers he had in his hands. “Here, it says you asked for a move, but nothing about wanting to stop the training for fieldwork.”

“WHAT?!”

“They are two different things,”’ Victor shrugged. “I admit, it isn’t common to find a training field agent in Records, but it isn’t the first time. So come with me, we are going to need to get to know each other, so that I know what you can and can’t do in a mission.”

Yuuri got up on shaky legs and left his office, feeling the stares of his co-workers. He couldn’t blame them. They probably hadn’t heard much because he had his door closed, but nobody would miss seeing Victor Nikiforov arrive.  It was strange to have a living legend on that floor. Yuuri flushed in embarrassment thinking about what the rumour mill would get from this.

“Agent Nikiforov...”

“Call me Victor,” the Russian reply with a smile. “We are going to work together. Can I call you Yuuri?”

“I suppose? I mean,yes.” Yuuri answered, flustered. He was used to people using his name, but somehow, it was the first time since he had stopped working with only the Japanese teams, that he had been  _ asked _ if that was ok.

He followed Victor to the lift.

“I’ve seen your performance evaluations, and you have a good aim and are good at remembering data and patterns,” he commented, looking at the paper—at what had to be Yuuri’s file— on his hands. “Your physical was ok, but…”

He stopped and looked Yuuri up and down appraisingly.

“You have let yourself go.”

Yuuri felt himself flush again. He was aware he had been eating more than he should. He had found a little place that cooked passable katsudon, and, feeling so hurt and homesick, he had eaten more times there than he should.

“First thing will be making you fit again. You can’t go like that in the field. Not if you have to run.”

“I…I can come jogging to work.”

“And use the gym. I’m sure you had some kind of routine before.” Victor said still looking at him critically. “You don’t need to be an athlete to be in the field, but neither can you be a little piggy.”

Yuuri didn’t know if he was red because of shame, anger or both. But he didn’t like it. And he couldn’t wait to tell Phichit.


	2. Time for a Change

“He’s  _ such  _ an asshole.” he said when he saw his flatmate. 

“Who?”

“Victor- _ fucking _ -Nikiforov. He came in, told me he was going to help me be a field operative and…”

“Wait, wait. Didn’t you change areas to stop training for that?”

“It seems I didn’t put in the paperwork to stop the training? Did you know anything about that?” Yuuri turned to look at him when he didn’t get an answer. “Phichit?”

The Thai looked at him, trying to seem innocent and failing.

“Did you know I had to submit a request to stop the training?”

“Not really. But I was sure there had to be more paperwork involved. There’s _ always _ more paperwork.”

Yuuri had to agree on that.

“But why didn’t you say anything? He was there looking at me acting like an idiot because I didn’t even know I hadn’t given up my training. It was humiliating.”

“Because I have always listened to you talk about how much you wanted to be in the field.” Phichit replied while going to the kitchen. “And you can’t let one minor mistake make you stop.”

“I nearly stopped the Red Cross from existing, Phichit.” Yuuri let himself fall on the sofa and put a cushion over his face. “I don’t call that a  _ minor _ mistake.”

“It didn’t happen, right?” Phichit said poking his head out of the kitchen door. “Don’t torture yourself over it.”

“Still…”

“If it were that bad, Victor Nikiforov wouldn’t want to train you. He wouldn’t have orders to make you field ready. You were close to it anyway. I’m sure if you said you wanted to go back Ciao Ciao would give you your former job and even a team.”

Yuuri groaned.

“You aren’t helping, Phichit.” He murmured from behind the cushion, starting to think if suffocating himself with it would be less painful.

“Am I supposed to?”

“You are my friend! You have to support me when I say this is a bad idea, and that I should go tomorrow and do all the paperwork to stop this training and avoid endangering more people.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Phichit came from the kitchen and sat with him. “Breathe with me and stop for a moment.”

Yuuri tried to follow his breathing pattern, trying to calm himself before he worked himself into a panic.

“Ok. Better.” Phichit said after a few minutes. “Now, don’t think about what you think you should do. Do you want to try again? Since I’ve known you, your dream has been to be an agent and save Time. That was your only goal since you learnt about this organisation.”

“Before that I wanted to be a ballet dancer or a skater, but when Minako told me what she did in her job, yes that was it. “ Yuuri admitted.

“Then, try again.” Phichit said. “Try once more and if it doesn’t work, give it up and focus just on your work at Records.”

Yuuri looked at the wall thoughtfully. A big part of him thought it was better if he stopped now, but a tiny part of himself —the one who had been a teenager hearing with wide eyes what his ballet teacher really used to do before getting injured— wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Not yet.

Perhaps he could try it one more time.

**

When the alarm clock sounded earlier than usual the following morning, Yuuri groaned into the pillow and tried to hide under it while pushing the button. When the alarm sounded again 5 minutes later, he dragged himself out of  bed and dressed in his workout clothes. He wasn’t a morning person at all, so he had a very efficient method that meant he could be on his way to work after 20 minutes, but half the time forgetting something on his way out.

Reminding himself to get his backpack and work clothes, he trotted down the stairs of the building and, breathing in, he looked around. Yuuri and Phichit lived in a not too crowded neighbourhood, a place where people knew each other and were usually nice. It was a nice change of pace for a city so overflowing with tourists as Barcelona, where you could find them everywhere making crowds and being loud. The only tourists you’d find in Yuuri’s neighbourhood were the ones who got lost on their way to Park Güell, something very strange in the city.

The main problem was that it was far from work, but the metro stations made it manageable. Now, with having to be fit again, instead of walking a bit to the metro or taking a bike like Phichit did, it meant running the whole distance to the Time Organisation’s Headquarters, which was close to ten kilometres. The good thing was that all of it was downhill. The bad part was that if he really wanted to get in form fast he should also run back from work and there was no way he was going to run uphill.

Trying to think of a different way to do more exercise, Yuuri began his run down the streets, saying hi to some of his older neighbours who were already out and doing errands. He had left home a bit earlier to gauge how much time it’d take him to reach the office and use the gym showers. He probably could use the gym too, later, when he was fit enough that running to work didn’t feel like he was going to cough up a lung.

He arrived at the office an hour later puffing a bit. He really was out of shape. Wiping at his sweat, he sighed and walked to the gym, set on having a shower and hitting the cafeteria for breakfast before his day started. If he was fast enough, he’d have time to eat a proper breakfast instead of getting a coffee and a pastry to eat at his desk.

“Yuuri!” An already familiar Russian voice made him stop and sigh. Yuuri turned to see Victor walking briskly to meet him.

“You are late.”

Yuuri frowned looking at his watch; he had 30 minutes before he was due to start.

“I don’t start work until nine Victor.”

“You need to hit the gym before you do. Today, we don’t have time, but tomorrow you should arrive earlier.”

“I already ran to work.”

“That’s not enough if you want to be ready in time for your exam.”

“What exam?” Yuuri spluttered. “You didn’t mention  any kind of exam yesterday!.”

“The one to qualify you as a field agent, of course. We have 3 months to get you ready in time for the next examination, so you’ll have to work hard.”

Yuuri breathed in, trying to stop the panic. Victor seemed to sense something because he smiled at him.

“Don’t worry. You already know all you need. You just need to get back into shape and learn to apply what you know in a real situation. We have enough time.”

“I’m going to shower and have breakfast.”

“I’ll go with you. We need to spend more time together. We need to learn more about each other.” Victor said following him to the locker rooms. They weren’t too crowded at that time of the day but Yuuri could heard some voices at the back of the room and the sound of showers and hair dryers running.

“That doesn’t include following me to the shower,” Yuuri replied closing the door to the cubicle in his face. “I’m an adult, I can shower alone.”

“But needing help isn’t the only reason to shower together.” A known voice could be heard a bit farther away at the same time a hair dryer stopped.

“Not helping.” Yuuri yelled. Of course Christophe Giacometti had to be there.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to.” Chris’ voice sounded nearer, making Yuuri hit his head against the door with a small thud. He didn’t need the Swiss to make Victor think he was asking something reasonable.

“Chris stop harassing Yuuri.” Victor said, uncharacteristically serious for once, surprising both Yuuri and Chris. “Yuuri, I’ll wait for you at breakfast. I need to check what you eat. You need to get on a diet. Chris come with me, please.”

Yuuri groaned at the mentioned of a diet, forgetting the rest of the weird exchange that had just happened. There went his pastry. He grumbled getting under the shower. It wasn’t even 9 a.m. and it already felt like it was going to be a very long day.

**

That feeling proved to be correct when later, already showered and dressed, he went to the cafeteria where Chris and Victor were talking. They were being  uncharacteristically serious, but at seeing Yuuri enter, Victor smiled widely and yelled his name, making people turn their heads to look at them,  Yuuri rushing to avoid their stares.

“I hope that comment earlier didn’t make you uncomfortable.” Victor said, side-eyeing Chris who shrugged.

Yuuri blinked surprised looking from Victor to Chris, who seemed a bit surprised but also amused. He didn’t know why Victor had suddenly changed moods so fast; it wasn’t like he didn’t know what Chris was like, or took what he said seriously. Chris and he had started working in the agency at the same time but in different places, and while he would never say they were close friends —not like he was with Phichit, or how Chris was with Victor— they were friendly enough that Yuuri knew when the Swiss man was just teasing, and Chris  knew when to continue it or just stop it.

“Uh. No, it’s okay,” he said. “Well not  _ okay _ like I like it; but I know it was just teasing?”

He rubbed the back of his neck feeling embarrassed at how tongue-tied he had become suddenly. He couldn’t do anything right.

“Great!” Victor said again, smiling and making him dizzy with his sudden mood changes. “Now let’s take a look at what you usually eat. You need to lose weight.”

Yuuri groaned again, getting ready to see all his life choices questioned. Chris patted him on the shoulder.

“Good luck with that. I’ll leave you two alone, lovebirds.”

Yuuri flushed at the comment but focused on ignoring it and paying attention to what Victor was saying about his meals. He wasn’t a stranger to being on a diet but that didn’t make it any more enjoyable.

**

Soon he settled in a routine that had Yuuri running from home to the office with time enough to hit the gym, before sitting at his desk with his breakfast. For once, he was glad his job at Records wasn’t as stressful as what Phichit and the intelligence teams did. He worked, or at least he tried to.  It wasn’t like he could get much done anyway, Victor had decided Yuuri was going to be ready in time for the end of the year exams, and that meant appearing in the middle of his work day and taking him out to review other agents’ missions or to get him into fighting (or running) shape. Yuuri suspected, that if confronted with the option, he would run—he was an expert in running from his problems, he admitted self-deprecatingly— but it was probably a good idea to learn how to defend himself.

The routine he had settled into helped Yuuri to relax around Victor. He was still wary about the Russian but he had admitted to Phichit one night that it was difficult to hero-worship him when he was tired and a bit annoyed about his lack of tact and bluntness. Yuuri was used to bluntness—living first in Detroit, and now in Spain, didn’t let you have any other option—, but the Russian took it to another level. Yuuri wondered if he really was that insensitive or he just decided to act that way to see how much he could push before Yuuri forgot his ingrained manners and tried to choke him.

“YUURI!”

The silence in Records was broken by the Russian, who seemed to have forgotten again the memo about being quiet on that floor, making Yuuri sigh and roll his eyes. There went what had looked like a quiet and calm afternoon for once.

“Yes, Victor?” He asked when a silver-haired head poked into his office a few seconds later. Why the Russian started calling him from the other side of the floor was something Yuuri had stopped trying to understand.

“Here you are. I’ve been looking for you. You have to get ready. Tomorrow we are going into the field.”

Yuuri paled before shaking his head frantically.

“WHAT. WHY?”

“You have to start getting back into missions if you want to pass the exams.” Victor said, a smile curving his lips. “Don’t worry, I’m going with you and it’s an easy one. And the place should be familiar.”

Yuuri gulped, praying it wasn’t again the one he had messed up last time.

“Where?”

“Japan. We are going to see ninjas!!” Victor smiled, a smile big and heart-shaped and completely different than the one he had on his lips a few moments earlier.


	3. Turning back the hands of Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter to include the first mission :D. I have researched the era within my own possibilities (my degrees aren't in History or Asian studies) so if you find something historically inaccurate please take it as an artistic license.

The day of the mission Yuuri found himself awake before his alarm sounded. He was getting nervous, too anxious remembering what could go wrong to be able to stop it. Conjuring different scenarios where he did something wrong and history changed and Victor hated him for being a huge failure.

Sighing, he got out of the bed and dressed in his training clothes. He wasn’t supposed to be at work before 10 that day, just in time to get the info package for his mission, read it while he changed into the period appropriate clothing and go. Except he was vibrating out of his skin and he needed something to do. Running to the office, and hitting the gym if he had time, seemed like a better idea than staying in bed and working himself up even more.

Grabbing something to eat from the kitchen he trotted down the building stairs and tried to focused on running lazily before going into a full sprint. If he had time he would try to go ice skating or find a place to dance, but running would have to be enough for today.

**

Victor found Yuuri later, in the cafeteria with a Record information package on the table and a frown on his face.

“Are you ready Yuuri?” he smiled looking at his own file. “It’s the first time I get to go to Japan before the late 20 th century. Not a lot of chances for Europeans to be around; I want to see ninjas.”

“I doubt you’ll get the chance unless you are sent to a different year than me.” Yuuri muttered keeping his gaze on the papers, settled on committing to memory every tiny detail he could. He at least had the advantage of already knowing what was supposed to going on. It had been in his school history textbooks growing up, but that also meant that the pressure to make everything go well was higher.

“Tokyo, in 18-something,” Victor murmured looking at the date. “1869.”

“Same. And back then it was called Edo,” Yuuri stopped himself, frowning and trying to remember, “No, wait I think it changed its name to Tokyo a year before. “

He shook his head.

“In any case, there weren’t ninjas then. Not like whatever you see in movies, which I think was more fiction than reality anyway,” Yuuri added, trying to ignore the disappointment in his co-worker’s face. “And even if it were, how would that relate to the Ikawura Mission? We are talking about going abroad, not internal fighting.”

Yuuri shook his head, focusing on the dossier again. He couldn’t believe he had to talk to the people who were behind Japan’s industrialisation. If that mission didn’t exist, Japan wouldn’t have had enough knowledge to modernise itself and would be completely different. Yuuri  could feel a cold sweat starting to gather on his forehead just at the idea of something going wrong. 

“And who are you are supposed to be?” Victor asked, distracting him before he could work himself up to a panic attack.

“I’m supposed to be one of Guido Verbek’s former students, and you…” Yuuri replied, welcoming the distraction.

“Foreigner working close. I won’t be in the meeting like you should be, but I can be in another room in the tea house.” Victor put a finger over his lips thinking. “We need to go and talk to our contact there. We aren’t going to be able to just appear for a meeting, convince them a diplomatic trip is needed and go away. It’s going to take weeks. It’s a good thing that when we come back it’ll be to this same day. If not you wouldn’t have enough time for the exams.”

“We are going to be so jet-lagged.” Yuuri complained.

He didn’t know exactly the physics behind it—he had tried once to ask the Time Engineers calculating when to go, how time and space changed, but he had gotten lost in the first five minutes—but somehow, you could go back in Time and spend time there, but when you came back you were extremely jet-lagged. It was like your body knew the time was different and not what the clock said. Usually, the doctors recommended to go back after the same period you spent in your mission so your body didn’t have to deal with changing years and also missing time, but sometimes it was impossible to go back to your time weeks or months after you left, so they had to deal with the physical consequences. Nothing that rest and medication wouldn’t fix.

“It looks that way.” Victor shrugged. “At least I won’t have to find a sitter for Makka.”

“Makka?” Yuuri wondered. As far as he knew Victor didn’t have kids. That was the kind of information the rumour mills probably would know about.

“My dog,” Victor smiled taking out his phone and showing Yuuri pictures of a big brown poodle. “Isn’t he cute?”

“Yeah, he is,” Yuuri admitted smiling a bit. He loved dogs. “I used to have one when I lived in Japan, but he died while I was abroad at uni.”

Yuuri missed Vicchan like crazy, even after all this years. The hurt had been soothed a bit by time, but he would always regret not being there when his beloved pet died. He had thought sometimes about getting another dog. He missed the support and love his Vicchan had given him, but he wasn’t sure if his landlord allowed pets. Besides,  he spent too much time at the headquarters to pay enough attention to it, anyway. It wouldn’t be fair.

Victor frowned sadly at his words.

“That’s so sad.” he said mournfully before looking at his phone again and pocketing it. “Makka is already 14 so I’m dreading the moment that happens.”

Victor got up from the table.

“We should get ready,” he smiled forcibly, taking his things. “We need to be dressed and ready at the mission gate in less than an hour. See you there.”

Yuuri looked at his back, wondering what had gotten into the usually cheerful Victor, before going back to panic over his folder. He needed to learn all of that information and fast.

An hour later Yuuri found himself running down the stairs. 19 th century clothes weren’t that great for running in, but at least he was wearing western ones instead of a kimono. At least male western clothes let him run, he shuddered at the thought of moving in some of the dresses he had seen when he had gone to retrieve his clothes.

The Tailor Department was two floors above the Mission Control Room.  They had clothes in styles from all over the world and eras, and very talented workers who could tailor the clothes to you as much as possible. Yuuri’s suit was a bit big on him, but not enough to look stupid.

He cut the corner of the corridor and slowed down, arriving at the meeting point looking like he had been walking briskly instead of sprinting through the building. Of course, Victor Nikiforov was already there looking irritatingly beautiful, like a model from a magazine—if magazines wanted to show 19 th century clothes— and waiting for him.

“Just in time.” Victor said checking the pocket watch he had in a chain to his vest. “We’ll go together and meet up with our contact there, and then you’ll be on your own.”

Yuuri tried to stifle the panic he could feel trying to close his throat.

“Really?”

“No, this is a training mission.” Victor winked, Yuuri felt so much relief at those words he couldn’t even feel angry. “I’ll be around. We both will be living in the same inn, like our contact does. But it’s your mission. I can go with you up to a point, but the rest will be your job.”

Yuuri breathed in, trying to remind himself not to get nervous before he had to. Small steps.

“Okay. Let’s go,” he said focused on getting into the mission as soon as they could. Before his nerves killed him.

Victor opened the door and let Yuuri lead the way to the Mission Control room. Once inside,  Yuuri looked around. He had been there before but he never stopped being amazed by the dozens of people looking at their screens showing images from different eras, and checking on the agents in different times. It looked a bit like those James Bond movies, where M and his minions looked after the agents... that’s if their agents travelled through time.

“Yuuri, Victor. Good morning.” A smiling brown-haired guy approached them with two small black squares on his hands. “I’m Leo and I’m going to be your mission contact.”

“Good morning Leo.” Yuuri replied politely. “Are those so we can contact you?”

“Yes, these are your phones.” Leo handed one to each of them. “They are already set for your time and place, so you’ll be able to call if anything happens. I don’t expect anything to go wrong, but security first.”

Yuuri nodded in agreement and put it in a safe place inside his clothes. It wasn’t exactly like a mobile phone—no phone could call to the past—but it was close enough that everybody had decided to call them that.

“It goes without saying that you can’t let anyone see them,” Leo continued. “We have a junior agent there monitoring the situation and they’ll be expecting you, so they can give you more info before they leave. Then you’ll be on your own.”

Victor nodded calmly like this was everyday occurrence for him. Well to be honest it nearly was, Yuuri reminded himself a bit hysterically, while trying to wipe his sweating hands on his trousers without staining them.

“Come on Yuuri,” Victor said, taking his shoulder and pushing him through the room to the gate placed a few stairs below the computers and in the middle of the wall. “Thanks Leo!”

“Call me when you arrive to confirm everything is ok.” Leo smiled, waving at them.

Yuuri turned to see the door in front of them. A part of him always expected it to be some kind of sci-fi gate or black hole instead of a very mundane iron door with a keyboard in the middle of it. It looked like it belonged in a factory or a warehouse, guarding the contents inside, instead of the path to another time and place.

“Ok, here we go.  Do you want to do the honours or should I?” Victor asked politely.

Yuuri battled between his politeness and his need to be sure he controlled everything. In the end manners—and the fear that he would put the wrong date because of his nerves—won.

“You do it.”

Victor shrugged before going to the pad on the door and keying in first his ID number by memory, before looking at the screen behind Yuuri’s back where their mission was announced and putting the date and the coordinates where they should go. Yuuri heard a click, like a lock opening and Victor pushed it. The door opened silently, too silently for Yuuri’s tastes who thought that a door that big should make at least a bit of noise.

“Should I go first?” Victor asked again, his face pleasantly relaxed, like he didn’t care one way or another.

“I’ll go.” Yuuri replied, breathing in. If he had to wait any longer he was going to get sick, he needed to  do this _ now _ .

He started walking, seeing from the corner of his eye Victor’s satisfied expression, before crossing the threshold and suddenly stepping on wood floors. Yuuri looked around, stepping aside just in time to let Victor step in and close the door behind him. Yuuri looked at it. It looked like a linen closet. Like the ones that were in his parents’ onsen back in Hasetsu. In fact, as far as he could see, they seemed to be in a traditional inn similar to the one he had grown up in. He hoped it had hot springs too. 

“Does it ever stop being confusing going from the headquarters to a completely different place?” Yuuri asked.

“Not really.” Victor smiled looking around interested. “It’s always a bit jarring. And usually you don’t even get time to get your bearings because you have to move, or have some agent waiting for you to arrive before leaving. That kind of thing.”

“Weren’t we supposed to have someone here to receive us?” Yuuri frowned.

A sliding door interrupted him.

“I’m really sorry I’m late” A young boy—he couldn’t be more than sixteen—bowed before closing the door. “I’m Minami Kenjirou.”

“Aren’t you a bit young?” Yuuri asked bluntly.

“All my family are time officers.” Minami explained, smiling. “We have always been supervising Edo and acting like a contact place for headquarters. But I want to be a field agent like you two when the time comes!”

Yuuri blinked, taken aback by all that enthusiasm. 

“That’s great.” He said lamely. “So, we read our mission and we need to get in contact with Guido Verbeck, but what else can you tell us?”

Minami breathed in, his excitement making him nearly vibrate where he stood.

“He is a Dutch foreigner, teaching at Kasei School and he’s very appreciated by the nobles.” Minami started. “He usually comes to the tea house next to this inn. So seeing him shouldn’t be difficult. He is nice but a bit too blunt, like all the foreigners, and his accent sometimes is a bit complicated.”

Victor hummed.

“Could we make him believe he knows us?”

“Absolutely,” Minami nodded so hard, Yuuri wouldn’t be surprised if his head fell off. “He is really bad with faces and names unless he sees you every day. But if he does he’ll remember everything, so be careful.”

Yuuri raised his eyebrows.

“I go to his school and one day I lied to him saying I had been sick and he remembered seeing me in town.” Minami explained dropping his head a bit.

“That makes sense,” he muttered. “Where are we going to stay?”

“Here” Minami was excited and happy again, nearly bouncing and making Yuuri dizzy. It was even worse that Victor’s mood changes. “You’ll have to share a room, though. We are full.”

Yuuri dropped his shoulders at hearing those words. Great. Exactly what he needed. 

After calling Leo to say everything was correct—and feeling like a student on a school trip checking with his parents—Yuuri dropped the few things he had with him and decided to explore. The city was very different to 21st century Tokyo. It had not even been the capital for a long time; just one year had passed since the Emperor Meiji had decided to live there and changed the name of the city. Yuuri hadn’t checked, but he wouldn’t be surprised if most people would need years to get used to calling the city Tokyo instead of Edo. Not only was it smaller, but the buildings were mostly traditional, with wood and paper instead of the steel that would come in the future. Japan had changed fast and coming back a bit more than a century seemed even further in time. 

His steps took him to the school where Verbeck taught. Not everybody could access Kasei School, reserved for noble and well off families who wanted their children to learn Western science and languages. It also meant Verbeck was given a lot of consideration. Not all the foreigners had the chance to move from teaching English for a few hours a day in Nagasaki to teaching in what would later become Tokyo University. The place looked calm but most people must have been in class because he could hear noise from inside the building. The door opened and a man that fitted the description and picture in his dossier back in Barcelona  appeared on the threshold.

“Do you need something, young man?”

“No, Verbeck-sensei.” Yuuri replied in Dutch, bowing respectfully. “Just walking around. I plan to sign for classes if sensei will accept me again but for now let me just pay my respects.”

“Again?”  The middle-age man checked him with a frown on his face, like he was trying to figure out who he was.

“Yes, sensei. I used to be your student in Nagasaki.”

It was a bit of a risk, but hundreds of students had been taught in that school, if Verbeck’s had such a bad memory as Minami had said, Yuuri shouldn’t have any problems being believed.

“It seems I can’t place you face, but my memory has always been dreadful,” the man admitted.

“Katsuki Yuuri, sensei.”

“Katsuki, do come and we can talk.”

Yuuri started to panic inside but tried not to show it. He hadn’t thought that far ahead about what he was going to say. He couldn’t improvise. He didn’t have that skill, he just worked hard.

“I don’t want to intrude during the day” he said regretfully. “But I’m staying at the Minami inn, so we can do it when sensei is not teaching.”

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness. We will meet after lessons are finished.”

The man returned Yuuri’s bow and closed the door, leaving Yuuri on the other side trying to stifle a sigh of relief, before walking briskly back to the inn to get ready for his meeting with Verbeck. He couldn’t deal with any more improvisation in the same day. Yuuri went back without any other incident and went to the room where Victor was sitting on the floor looking at the dossier. Yuuri frowned. They weren’t supposed to bring those with them, anyone could see them and as a result, it could change time. 

“That shouldn’t be there. If anyone finds what’s supposed to happen…”

Victor looked up, frowning and looking a bit hurt.

“I know. That’s why it’s not our information but what Kenjirou’s family has. It’s a crash course on this place’s history. You probably already know it but I do need to find exactly what I can and can’t do without attracting unwanted attention.”

Yuuri felt his face flush, completely embarrassed.  _ Of course, _ Victor fucking Nikifovov knew better. It was his job and he had been doing it for years. Who did he think he was to correct him? 

“And you were right no ninjas,” Victor pouted, ignoring Yuuri’s mistake and subsequent self-flagellation. ”Not even a former ninja castle or something I could see.”

“My town has one,” Yuuri mused, trying to keep up the conversation. “It isn’t that great.”

“How can you say that, Yuuri?” Victor exclaimed, offended. “Ninjas!”

Yuuri shrugged. He had never understood Westerners’ fascination with ninjas.

“I just met Verbeck.” he said before Victor could continue about why ninjas were amazing.

“YUUUURI,” Victor exclaimed. “You were supposed to wait, but well done!”

“Huh?” Yuuri said very eloquently, before flinching. It seemed not even talking was going to work today.

“We are always told to wait and observe.” Victor explained. “And that’s right and it works sometimes, but good officers have some kind of sixth sense, a gut sense that tells them when to act. You deciding to explore the city instead of staying shows you have that sense.”

Yuuri thought it showed that he didn’t have any ounce of common sense, but if Victor thought it was good he wasn’t going to argue. 

“As a foreigner, I have very little room in how to act and not.” Victor continued. “So it’s going to be up to you to do most of the work. I’ll just help and be here.”

Yuuri nodded.

“Also being Russian…”

“You didn’t get my info in the dossier?” Victor smiled a bit smugly which didn’t make sense to Yuuri until he continued talking. “I can’t be Russian, not with the hostilities between Russia and Japan…”

Yuuri blinked at the new lilt in Victor’s voice. He was still talking to him in English but now the words were stressed differently, almost like he was.

“…so I’ll be French.”

That.

Yuuri tried to suppress a shudder at the words. He had never thought French was a sexy language in spite of Chris trying to convince him,and everybody who was close enough to hear him, otherwise. But it seemed now he had to re-evaluate his opinion. Phichit was going to laugh himself sick if he ever heard it.

“Can’t you speak Dutch?” he asked trying to focus on the mission and not how  he had suddenly found out he had some kind of language kink. “It’d be more useful right now. Dutch is one of the main foreign languages spoken and probably what will be used with Verbeck.”

“No” Victor shook his head, frowning. “I speak German so I can understand most of what is being said when someone speaks in Dutch. But I can’t speak it. Do you?”

“Yes.” Yuuri replied, slightly peeved at the surprised tone. “I assumed my missions would be in Japan, and during a long time Dutch were the only foreigners who had access to Japan. I  speak German too and several other languages.”

Victor nodded, impressed, and Yuuri didn’t know if he should feel offended of not. His choices made sense, most people in the Agency were sent to missions in their own countries, where it would be easier for them to blend in unless the mission specified for someone foreign. Not everybody got sent around the world, disguising themselves and their accents. That was reserved for Intelligence agents who were gathering information,like Chris — or for the field ones trying fixing History like Victor. Yuuri had strived for that but knew he wasn’t good enough;at most he could be sent to China or Korea, but he felt even that wouldn’t be given to him.So he had taken on enough languages, that missions in any country Japan had relations to could be given to him.

“In any case, that means you won’t be able to be in  today’s meeting.” Yuuri mused. “Verbeck is coming, but he would know any French foreigner here. This isn’t Nagasaki. There are less foreigners here in Tokyo. I suppose you could just have arrived too, but it would be a bit weird if we went together, wouldn’t it?”

Victor flopped to the floor, looking at the ceiling.

“I have a feeling that I’m going to go stir crazy in this mission. I won’t be able to do that much.” He sighed, thinning his lips and frowning like was trying to figure out something. “These walls are very thin. If I’m in the room next door to the meeting, would I be able to hear it?”

“Probably. If we talk loudly it’s very likely, but if you are sitting with your ear on the wall you should be able to hear it even if we don’t unless we whisper.” Yuuri pondered. “We should try it today. I doubt we’ll talk about anything except his old school and where I have been.”

And that reminded him, he had to come up with a story for his character. Yuuri had no idea where to begin, so he was starting to get frustrated, and that made him panic. When he mentioned it to Victor, the Russian shrugged like it was something easy and obvious, but instead of commenting, he started asking him questions about what he thought he should be and why, helping Yuuri flesh out the past he had to invent so he could seem like a real person in that time.

The first meeting had gone pretty much as expected which was something Yuuri’s frayed nerves appreciated. Verbeck had been curious about his old student who had studied languages and now was in Tokyo to get a job in the government thanks to a recommendation. He was also proud of where he was teaching now, boasting about new and former students. It was kind of easy to make him talk about them, but he didn’t manage to move the conversation in a direction that helped his mission. They had to convince him it was a good idea to have another diplomatic mission abroad, but Verbeck wasn’t too sure.

“The last few tries were a disaster, and there are too many people thinking Japan needs to isolate itself again to protect their people from the rest of the world.” Verbeck shook his head.

“But that’s not going to work, Verbeck-sensei.” Yuuri replied apologetically. “There are too many interests in seeing Japan become more open to the world. I have been talking to the merchants in Nagasaki and they want to expand. And we also have a lot of foreigners improving our country like yourself or the Frenchman doing that lighting system in Nihonbashi.”

“Still, it’s something not up to me.” Verbeck replied bluntly. “And I may be appreciated, but I’m still a foreigner here. I can’t rock the boat too much.”

After that, Yuuri hadn’t managed to get much; having to change subjects back to his supposed back story and starting job at middle level in the Justice Ministry to avoid annoying Verbeck. He still got frustrated with himself when he remembered the situation and how little he had managed to get from the Dutch professor. Meanwhile, Victor— the one the rumour mill said had the skills and charm to convince even the most stubborn politicians—was stuck in the other room just listening.

**

“I don’t know what to do to convince him.” Yuuri groaned later, lying on his futon. “I don’t have that many stories to tell him, so after today perhaps I could get another meeting and that’s it? I’m going to fail.”

“Yuuri, you need to be calm.” Victor replied next to him unhelpfully. He  _ wanted _ to be calm, he also wanted to have a successful mission and live in a great world without stupid people. It wasn’t going to happen in any case.

“What you need to figure out is how to make another appointment happen,” Victor continued, unaware of Yuuri’s death glare. He suddenly turned to face him. “How about a recommendation? A way to get in touch with someone higher up? A contact with some foreigner he may know?”

It seemed Victor didn’t have any better ideas of what to do and that wasn’t helping much.

“I don’t know how welcomed a recommendation from a foreigner would be, or how much sense it would make in my job.” Yuuri mused. “But I can’t think of anything better.”

They spent the following days trying to not force a second meeting—it would seem too strange to press so much for attention suddenly— and thinking about how it could play out and all the things that could go wrong. Well, at least Yuuri did. He didn’t know what went inside his co-worker’s head, but the Russian kept smiling and exploring Tokyo, sometimes on his own, acting his role as a French engineer doing the lighting system, and other times with Yuuri, who couldn’t help being amazed at how  _ easy _ Victor made everything seem; like he really was a Frenchman from that century living in the city, instead of a time officer outside his time. He wished he could do the same.

Apart from that, the only other thing distracting them while they waited, was the junior officer. Minami Kenjirou was an exuberant and enthusiastic boy who had,to Yuuri’s deep bafflement, decided he wanted to be like him. He knew Minami wasn’t trying to make him uncomfortable, but Yuuri couldn’t help wanting to hide every time he saw him. Why had he decided Yuuri was some kind of role model to follow?  Victor? Yes, of course, that made sense. But him? He was just a washed-out failure trying to do better on his second chance. But Minami didn’t seem to agree with him, trying to be around him any chance he got. Yuuri was sure Victor found it amusing; he had seen him smile a lot of the times Minami ambushed him, asking questions about what he could expect from his exams and about being a field agent, or anything he could think of.  Yuuri didn’t know how to deal with this surprising turn of events or his overwhelming enthusiasm. Not even being told he couldn’t know about what was for him the future, seemed to put a dent in his good mood. The only thing that seemed close to making Minami a bit down, was when he learnt time officers could always go to the past, but not to the future, and therefore he would never be allowed to visit Yuuri’s time because it would be his own future.

 

The chance to speak again to Verbeck came after a week —in the form of a letter sent by the Dutch teacher— before he had to go back to the school and figure out a way to make him pay attention to them.

“An invitation to tea with Shimazu Takayoshi, whoever he is, and Verbeck.” Victor frowned reading the Japanese writing with difficulty.

“A former student of Verbeck and one of the advisors to the Foreign Minister.” Yuuri said while getting ready. “History said he was interested in Western politics, so perhaps…”

“You need to figure out how to make him think you have been abroad and Japan needs to have another diplomatic mission!” Victor exclaimed. 

“Not that  _ I _ have been abroad. You would only be allowed back under very specific circumstances,” Yuuri reminded Victor. He had enough with his made-up story. He didn’t want to try to get into that potential mess. “But yes, that was the idea. I know the missions done by the Shogunate were a mixed bag and the last was a complete failure…”

“But we know this one came to exist and was important,” Victor continued, his smile dropping suddenly. “I can’t go with you. Even if we managed to make him believe I’m one of the French engineers in the city, it would be weird for you to bring me, wouldn’t it?”

“We can try.” Yuuri said, not too sure. It did sound a bit invasive. “I don’t know how they’d take it, but we can always ask?”

“If you want me to be there, it’s the only thing I can think of.” Victor admitted, dropping his shoulders. “I could be outside hiding while you are inside. but even that is risky. Someone could see me.”

“Can’t we use the phones Leo gave us as some form of radio?” the Japanese man asked, grasping for straws.

Victor touched his lips, thinking, before shaking his head, making Yuuri’s head drop. He knew it was too good to be true.

“If we were in a time period with mobile phones, sure. But not here. You’d have to wear some kind of headphones if you wanted to hear me and we don’t have the means to disguise it.” Victor smiled ruefully. “We sometimes may seem like movie spies, but if those things exist in reality, we don’t have the budget for them.”

“Because why make our lives easier when we can just improvise, right?” Yuuri snorted.

“You got it.” the Russian smiled for a moment before turning serious. “I’m sorry, but either they accept you bringing in an outsider, or you are going to be on your own.”

Yuuri breathed in, trying to calm his nerves that had suddenly multiplied exponentially. He already knew it; he didn’t need Victor to remind him. He smoothed his clothes nervously, trying to get himself into shape so he didn’t have a meltdown on his way to the tea room.

A door sliding open made them jump.

“I’m sorry!” Minami bowed apologetically, before going inside and closing the door. “I was just wondering what you were doing and if you wanted some help.”

Yuuri tried to smile at the teenager. His enthusiasm and energy was a bit too much to deal with now, not to mention all that hero-worship he didn’t deserve at all.

“We do need to send a question back to Verbeck,” Victor started before Yuuri had to think anything to say. “Could you bring it to him and wait for a reply, please?”

Judging by Minami’s reaction, you could have be forgiven in having thought he’d won the lottery instead of being asked to be a messenger.

“Anything else you can think of Katsuki-senpai?” he asked, nearly bouncing in his place.

“That’d be enough, Kenjirou.” He said faintly, earning himself a smile.

“I’ll be back soon,” the boy said before bowing, his running steps sounding as he left the room.

Minami was true to his word and came back not an hour later with an affirmative answer from Verbeck.

“He said your friend is welcome to attend and he is interested in knowing what’s going on in Europe lately.” Minami said, still breathing harshly after the run. “What are you going to do? What are you going to ask him?”

Well he could catch his breath enough to keep asking things, Yuuri mused before answering.

“We should start getting ready if we want to be on time,” he said uncomfortably, feeling a stab of guilt at the boy’s crestfallen expression.

“We have to finish our planning, but when we get back and finish all the confidential stuff, we can call you and chat.” Victor suggested gently, to Yuuri’s horror. What could they talk about? Why should they even tell him anything and spend even more time together?

That seemed to cheer Minami up though, who thanked them and went out, a small bounce in his step. When the older Japanese man mentioned his doubts about that conversation he was surprised to see a disappointed expression from the silver-haired man.

“Yuuri,” he said reproachfully. “He looks up to you.”

“And I don’t know why. I’m nobody. I’m just a researcher trying to become a field agent and that is if I don’t fail my exams. He should have someone who has done something worthy as an idol.”

Like Victor himself, who was looking at him like he had told him he hated dogs and drowned puppies every morning.

“Idols aren’t about being worthy. It’s about a goal and wanting to reach what they do,” the Russian man said. “If you can’t even motivate the ones who idolise you, how are you going to motivate yourself?”

**

Victor’s words kept resonating in his head while they got ready and walked to the tea house. He couldn’t help thinking about them while they went through the greetings and motions, thinking how he would have felt if he had been in Minami’s place, how he would have felt if he had an idol who had felt like he mattered and he could reach his goals. It was something to think about, but not when he was supposed to pay attention to his mission. Looking around he saw the tea was nearly finished being served and it was time to start.

“First, of all Mr. Verbeck I want to thank you for welcoming me today. I’m sorry for the imposition.” Victor said smoothly, his French-accented English sounding jarring to Yuuri’s ears.

“It wasn’t a problem monsieur Julliard.” Verbeck said smoothly. “How are things in Europe? We get newspapers but it isn’t like living there. Those articles always feel lacking.”

They chit-chatted a bit asking about different issues that any other time would have interested Yuuri a lot, but then, too nervous to think of anything other than what they had to get done, he could barely bring himself to be impressed by how the Russian man seemed to charm their hosts and how he kept telling them news from a country he barely knew. It was a talent and it made Yuuri feel small in comparison.

“And what you are doing here Julliard-san?” Shimazu Takayoshi asked Victor, talking for the first time.

Yuuri looked at the governmental advisor while Victor talked about the lighting system planned to be installed next year. The advisor was a plain man, with dark eyes and hair, and an average stature and weight that didn’t seem to have any kind of remarkable features. The only thing that drew attention to him, was how sharp  his gaze was, closely following  Victor’s explanation before asking pointed questions that showed a mind as sharp as his eyes. 

“We are doing our best, and I think my superiors would be fine with teaching the people your government decided on, but I don’t know how that is going to be received.” Victor continued. 

“I can’t presume to know what our Ministers are thinking, but if you are here I think the idea will be well received. “ Shimazu answered smoothly. “I know we have been a very isolated country, but this is a different situation.”

“We were talking about this last time we talked, didn’t we Katsuki?” Verbeck asked drawing Yuuri to the conversation. “He seemed a bit frustrated with it.”

“Not frustrated, Verbeck-san.” Yuuri corrected bowing. He didn’t want to be seen as pressuring them. “I just think the treaties are unfair and while there are a lot of things we can learn from Europe and America, like science and technology, we need better terms.”

“Your words have logic, but those were the treaties signed by the Shogunate.” Verbeck replied. “As you can guess we didn’t reach an agreement last time.”

“What do you suggest, Katsuki-san?” Shimazu asked switching his piercing eyes from Victor to him and making Yuuri want to shiver.

“I don’t know enough to suggest anything to the great people who advise our Emperor, Shimazu-san.” Yuuri replied carefully. Offending Shimazu Takayoshi would mean failing this mission. “I just think that now that we have started a new era, perhaps new treaties could be established or at least the current ones could be modified.  More people should be allowed to learn abroad; we can’t always depend on very bright men, like our present company, to come here.”

Shimazu looked at him with his piercing gaze, making Yuuri start to sweat before he nodded.“Your opinion has some merit.” He said, before switching his attention to Verbeck. “Perhaps Verbeck-sensei could mention it during one of the Dajö-kan meetings.”

Yuuri stifled a sigh of relief, if Shimazu was advising Verbeck to talk about this at a ministerial meeting, it was because it seemed it could go somewhere and he hadn’t fucked up his mission.

The rest of the tea continued through news and ponderings, but it wasn’t too much later before Shimazu bid his goodbyes and the rest of them decided to depart.

“That was a good reply to an important question, Katsuki.” Verbeck said when they said goodbye at the school’s door.

“Thank you sensei,” Yuuri bowed. “I’m glad I could be of help. The Emperor will have to decide what is best for all of us, of course.”

“Indeed.” Verbeck evaluated him. “But that sharp mind of yours will take you far. I can’t wait to hear what you’ll do. Good night.”

Yuuri bowed again, a bit overwhelmed by the praise, before going back to the inn alongside Victor who had kept himself surprisingly close-mouthed. 

“How was it?” he asked when they were far enough from the the school to not being heard.

“You did great Yuuri.” Victor replied with a big smile his French accent nowhere in place. “You were extremely nervous and it showed but here it helped. It looked like you were a bit intimidated, and Shimazu had an unhealthy ego so he  liked it, but next time you should try to appear calm. That was a bit sloppy.”

Yuuri sighed, nodding.

“I’ll try better next time.”

“You will.” The Russian squeezed his shoulder. “Now let’s pack up and get home.”

The next few hours were even more exhausting. Yuuri didn’t know if it was because he finally could relax, if it was because even though he tried, Minami’s energy was draining on a normal day;  it had been worse when he was told a bit of how the mission had gone, or if it was actually going back in time and feeling the beginnings of what seemed like a bad time jet-lag starting to get to him. In any case he only wanted to go home and  _ sleep. _

“Well done, guys.” Leo greeted them when they appeared through the door. “We have done the checks and everything seems back on track, so after a fast debrief you can have the usual down-time to recover from the time-effects before reporting the day after tomorrow.”

Yuuri couldn’t even think what he had said and done. Much too exhausted to think and just barely able to drag himself up to the director’s office, nod along with Victor’s explanation to director Feltsmann—who seemed as scary as usual—and call for a taxi home. He could take the metro back but he feared he’d fall asleep and end who knew where, before collapsing on his own bed.


	4. Making Time

Yuuri woke up and immediately groaned. Everything hurt. He tried to stretch and move carefully without making himself dizzy. He felt like his head could fall off if he moved too fast. He needed a warm long shower and to remember where he had the meds. Whoever said that time lag was like a bad hangover was lying. It was  _ worse.  _ Dragging himself to the bathroom took a lot of effort, but the shower’s warm water managed to wake him up and relax his tight muscles;  to feel human enough that the mere idea of getting food to take his medication with, didn’t make him want to die.

“Hey,” Phichit murmured from where he was lying on the sofa, checking something on his phone. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I got run over by a bus and then it came back to run me over again,” Yuuri muttered on his way to the kitchen, stopping in front on the fridge’s door and frowning like he was forgetting something.

Right. He checked the time on the kitchen’s clock before sticking out his head and looking at the dining room where Phichit kept looking at his phone.

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” he asked. “It’s nearly 10.”

“I have to go in an hour. I’m going in late because we did too much overtime again. “ Phichit replied sitting up and looking at him over the sofa. “What time did you get in, anyway? I arrived after midnight and you were already asleep.”

Yuuri tried to remember while he went through the motions of making himself breakfast.

“I have no idea.” He said while closing the microwave door. “I remember the clock at Director Feltsman office pointed at half past eight when we were there, so around 9 p.m.?”

“You slept 13 hours?” Phichit looked shocked. “You, who rarely gets a normal 8 hours of sleep without having to pull an all-nighter?”

“It’s this fucking time-lag thing’s fault.” Yuuri muttered taking the warm milk from the microwave and pouring coffee over it.

“Shouldn’t you eat food before taking those?” Phichit asked when he saw Yuuri taking the pills the agency gave all the agents that went through time.

“I’m going to eat it now. Don’t worry.” Yuuri said, looking for cereal. It wasn’t the greatest breakfast and it made him feel like he was back at his first year at Uni, but he couldn’t deal with anything more complicated than that. “I’m serious Phichit. If it’ll make you feel better I’ll get more food at lunch but I can barely move right now. I’m not cooking.”

Phichit shrugged.

“It’s your life. Up to you man.” The Thai man checked the time. “Ok, I have to go. Take it easy today Yuuri.”

“I will” he promised. It wasn’t a difficult promise to make. Anything more taxing than lying on the sofa and watching TV seemed exhausting.

 

He didn’t know what those meds were, but they were nearly miraculous. By early afternoon he already felt like he wasn’t dying, and by that night he just felt very tired, but nothing that another good night of sleep wouldn’t cure. Still, when he woke up the following day, he took it easy. He didn’t have to go back to work until the afternoon when they were supposed to write all the reports from his mission, so he could go back to his work in Records the following day; a Friday, just in time for the weekend. Yuuri didn’t want to know how much work he had accumulated over those three days spent on the mission, but he hoped it wasn’t too bad. In theory, someone should have taken his most urgent tasks, but that didn’t mean the rest wasn’t sitting there in his tray and computer inbox, waiting for him.

Yuuri groaned and shook his head. Right. That was a problem for tomorrow (his therapist would be proud he had been able to remember that), for now, he had to focus on this afternoon’s reports, but before that he needed to pass the time. Looking at his flat from his place in the kitchen, he decided he couldn’t stay inside another day without going stir crazy. Finishing his coffee, he put the mug in the dishwasher and went straight to his room. He needed to find where his skates were.

**

The ice rink was somewhere between his apartment and work, even though it meant a slight detour from his normal route. Not enough to be a long way out but enough that Yuuri planned to grab something to eat in any cafeteria nearby before going to work instead of going back to the apartment. Any other day he would have run or rode one of the city rental bikes to the rink, but he was still feeling lazy so he opted for using public transport, (good thing there was a bus stop not too far from it). It was past ten-thirty when he arrived, just in time to see the ice rink open. He had enough time to spend a few hours skating lazily before having to leave for work at three. Yuuri entered the building, and after saying hi to everybody by name, went to  lace his skates. He tried to come at least once a month; it was relaxing for him and he tried to not feel too bad about spending money and time on it. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it from time to time.

The rink was nearly empty  that morning, just a couple of young people, probably university students, and an older couple. Yuuri loved to skate in the mornings; afternoons were too busy with school kids and families (especially on weekends), but on a morning week day the ice was nearly his own. It reminded him of his childhood, of spending afternoons with Yuuko in the Ice Castle, trying to imitate the steps and spins they had seen while watching ice skating competitions on tv. The Japanese man tried some of the steps he remembered from his childhood, it had been a long time but he still could do a few of them, and he could do the compulsory figures with his eyes closed. As far as he knew they stopped being  taught a long time ago, but for him it was soothing, much like the ballet steps when he was in a dance studio; something he could do mechanically and get lost in them, making his head stop for a while.

When he opened his eyes, smiling after managing a step that he had struggled with the last time he had been skating, he turned around and felt his smile drop. There, in the gate getting ready to step onto the ice, was a very familiar silver-haired figure.  Yuuri was sure he was cursed, not even his haven was safe from Victor Nikiforov and  _ of course _ the man had immediately spotted him.

“Yuuri!!” he exclaimed skating to him. “What are you doing?”

“Skating.”

“I can see that. I mean what you were doing?” Victor replied, not even put off by Yuuri’s monosyllabic answer. “Compulsory figures?”

“I find them relaxing.” Yuuri felt himself go tense. Who the hell did Victor think he was? “What are  _ you _ doing here?”

“I don’t live too far away and we have the morning free, so I thought about skating,” Victor replied. “And I don’t have anything against compulsory figures, it has just been a long time since I saw them.”

Yuuri relaxed a bit. He probably was blaming  Victor for something he hadn’t even done, but he had already heard all about how compulsory figures were boring or any other disparaging comment about them, that he had lashed out automatically without meaning to.

“I learnt them when I was a kid back home.” He explained. “My friend Yuuko and I used to skate at our town ice rink and imitate what we saw on TV”

He hadn’t realised they had started moving and were skating along the rink until Victor moved in front of him and started skating backwards to look at his face.

“You skated when you were a kid?” he exclaimed brightly. “So did I! What a coincidence! Did you ever get into any competitions?”

“Victor, can you turn before you crash into someone?” he implored, only relaxing when the Russian just shrugged his shoulders and did as told. “Not really, it meant travelling outside our town and it was expensive. Also I’m not that good with strangers, so skating in public didn’t seem appealing. I preferred to skate just with my friend. You?”

“I did. I won a few competitions here and there.”

Of course he did. Yuuri should have known. Was there  anything Victor Nikiforov couldn’t do?

“I liked the steps, and compulsory eights weren’t too bad, but what I liked the most was the jumps.” Victor continued, turning his head to smile at Yuuri. “I was trying to jump a triple when I was in competition, but never continued enough to do so, but I can still do doubles. I can show you!”

“No, Victor, wait!” Yuuri exclaimed looking at Victor skating away to get more speed. His voice had travelled through the rink so everybody there was looking at them; Yuuri could feel himself flush with embarrassment.

Victor turned to speed up toward the centre of the rink which was empty, until he got fast enough and he leaned on his left leg, moving his right forward, gearing up for a jump and turning once, another half…and landing with a harsh crash on the ice.

“Victor! Are you ok?” Yuuri asked when he reached him.

“Ouch!” The Russian blinked up at him. “I shouldn’t probably have tried the flip when it has been ages since I did it.”

“It has been ages since you skated, and you tried a double flip?” Yuuri shook his head, while he helped Victor get up. “You’re lucky you didn’t injure yourself.”

“I’m going to be black and blue after this, but you’re right, Yakov would have killed me if I injured myself trying to impress you.” Victor admitted frowning at his feet.

Yuuri’s brain stopped and blinked. He hadn’t heard that. It was impossible.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked, deciding to ignore what Victor had just said. It was probably a hallucination, a product of the exhaustion or the medication. “Should a doctor take a look at your ankle or something?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” Victor replied, lightly. “I’m going to rest for a bit and then I’ll be back. Don’t let me keep you.”

Yuuri saw him leave, checking he wasn’t limping too much, or doing anything that meant he needed to go see the doctor, and sighing when he finally left the ice. It seemed he was doomed to find Victor everywhere he went. Trying to dispel the bad feeling Victor’s crash had left him with, he went back to his compulsory eights, trying to recover the feeling of calm he’d had before the Russian had arrived at the rink. But the nagging worry didn’t want to go away, so after a few minutes he gave up and skated to the gate, looking for Victor.

“Hey, are you really ok?” he asked when he reached the barrier and spotted him. Victor was close to the gate, sitting on one of the benches used by people to put on their skates, and looking at the ice with a thoughtful expression.

“Yuuri!” he said with forced cheer. “Did you come to keep me company?”

“I wanted to see how you were,” the Japanese man said, suddenly feeling shy. “That fall was pretty hard.”

“Yeah, it was. But I’ve had worse” Victor sighed, standing up. “In fact I think I can go in a bit if I avoid jumping.”

Yuuri observed Victor go back onto the ice. His movements didn’t seem like he was in any kind of pain, but something about him looked  _ sad, _ dejected even. Yuuri didn’t seem to be able to pinpoint what had happened, but this tired sad man seemed like a different person to the one he had seen before. Or perhaps, he corrected himself, seeing Victor smile at him with  a small smile, a pale comparison to the big hearted ones he had seen during their mission, not a completely different person, but another shade of it. It was like watching light go through a prism and getting a different colour than the one you expected. It wasn’t less, just different.

“So, what did you do with your friend...” Victor, asked elaborating when he saw Yuuri’s confusion. “The one you skated with, what you did you do with them on the ice?”

“Yuuko. She and her husband now own the ice rink where we used to skate.” Yuuri said. “I told you before, we copied what we saw in competitions on TV, we tried mainly steps and figures, we did jumps when our coach was around, but never without her.”

“Can you show me?” Victor asked gently, like he didn’t know if the answer was going to offend Yuuri, and it was that, for some reason, that was making him sad. It was strange, and a bit heartbreaking seeing Victor so tentative, trying to navigate through a path he had blazed through before.

“Sure,” he replied softly, trying to be as careful as Victor.

With a small smile, Yuuri moved a bit apart from Victor, closing his eyes and trying to think of the last program he had imitated with Yuuko. It had happened so long ago it seemed like another century, but he  could still remember it perfectly. It was the one he used when he wanted to get himself lost in the ice, the longing of the Italian aria seeping into his bones while he did the steps and a spin.

“That’s beautiful Yuuri.” Victor said, with bright eyes and a hand over his mouth when he had finished and opened his eyes again. “It’s sad and absolutely beautiful and I don’t know if I can copy you.”

“You don’t have to.” Yuuri replied, skating close to him so he could see him clearly. “You can learn the technical part and then express it how you want or need to. Don’t copy how I do it, just skate it being yourself.”

“You make it seem easy.”

“The steps? They aren’t that difficult.” Yuuri said, earning himself a small sad smile from Victor, which  made him wonder what he had missed.

“If you say so.” Victor sighed, before breathing in and putting a smile on his lips that looked completely wrong. “Ok, teach me those steps.”

They spent the next couple of hours trying to do the steps, but at the end of it all, Yuuri wouldn’t have been able to answer if they had managed to get them done or not.

 

Yuuri closed his eyes a bit when he stepped out of the skating rink and into the bright autumn sun. One of the things he missed from Japan, along with his family and the food he couldn’t find that easily in Barcelona, was the snow and the cold. In the five years he had been living here it had only snowed once, and the chaos had been so great it had become a bit of a legend. It was rare that he needed to wear more than a thick jacket; even his co-workers from other places in Spain thought the lack of a real winter was a bit too weird.

“We should get something to eat before reporting in.” Victor’s voice behind him made Yuuri jump and then sigh.

“I was planning to grab a sandwich or something to  eat on the way to the office.”

“What’s the hurry?” Victor asked, frowning when Yuuri told him that he wanted to check the work he had waiting for him. “That can wait for tomorrow, Yuuri. Anything really urgent would have been assigned to someone else. No, we are going to eat properly.”

Grabbing Yuuri’s arm, he dragged him through a couple of streets, in the opposite way to the office and in the direction of Sagrada Familia.

“Where are you taking me? That way is Sagrada Familia Victor, any place to eat in there is going to be crowded.”

“Trust me.”

Frowning Yuuri kept quiet, letting himself be dragged along a couple of the long empty streets before they took a turn. He  kept trying to read the street signs trying to orient himself. It was difficult to know where you were in this neighbourhood if you didn’t know it. There were long large streets, drawn like a line in a map with no distinctive landmarks other than one shop or another. Victor suddenly stopped in front of a small restaurant that didn’t look to have more than three or four tables in it. He pushed Yuuri in, greeting the owners with familiarity and getting the same kind of reply.

“How often do you come here?”

“When I don’t have time to cook and I’m not at work.” Victor shrugged. “They are nice and the food is homemade and cheap, so why not?”

They ordered  a few of the dishes they had on offer that day and Yuuri had to admit the food was good. He should bring Phichit here on one of those days they ended up grabbing a sandwich at work instead of eating real food.

“I’m glad you like it,” Victor replied, making Yuuri realise he had spoken aloud. “It’s one of my favourite restaurants.”

Yuuri blinked. He would have expected some kind of international cuisine restaurant, or at least a high-end one to be Victor’s favourite restaurant, not a small neighbourhood restaurant owned by a middle-aged couple who cooked a few home-made dishes. It seemed too  _ normal. _

_ “ _ My favourite restaurant is a tiny place, closer to the cathedral. Not the one here,” Yuuri said, moving an arm in the direction of the Sagrada Familia, “but the gothic one. It’s a small Japanese restaurant that cooks very good katsudon. Not as good as my Mum’s but it’s a good substitute.”

“Katsudon?” Victor asked.

“It’s a fried pork cutlet in a bowl with rice and egg,” Yuuri shrugged. “It’s my favourite dish.”

“You’ll have to take me there,” Victor commented, leaning his head on his hand. “Sounds like tasty food.”

“It is!” Yuuri exclaimed. “And my Mom’s is the best. But I gain weight too easily so I don’t eat it as much as I’d like to.”

The lunch passed fast—too fast in Yuuri’s opinion— and they walked slowly back to the office. It was a long walk, close to thirty minutes, but it didn’t matter to either of them; even if they did have the added weight of skating bags. It was a nice warm afternoon, and for once the conversation was easy. If Yuuri was being sincere, their conversations whilst they were working in Tokyo during the 19 th century had been easier than from before   the mission, but they lacked the slight feeling of comfort that seemed to surround them today.

“Well, time to write our reports.” Victor groaned when they reached headquarters, making a childish pout.

“It’s not that bad. I’ve read your previous reports. You can do it.” Yuuri entered the hall,  absentmindedly greeting the people waiting for the lift.

“Yuuri! You’ve  read my reports?” Victor exclaimed with a big-hearted smile, making Yuuri flush with embarrassment.

“It was part of my job when I worked under Celestino.” He tried to explain.

“Then you know how boring they can be!” Victor complained. “We should do it together.”

“No, Victor. We are supposed to do them alone so they can be cross-checked.” Yuuri reminded him, looking sideways when he heard a bell signalling a lift arriving. “I’m going to my office to write it. Good afternoon, Victor.”

“We are back into training tomorrow, Yuuri!” Victor said loudly so he could be heard inside the lift. “See you then!”

**

Yuuri looked around as he sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, back straight and hands laying on his lap to avoid fidgeting; it would reveal how nervous he really was. At his side, Victor was leaning into his own chair, talking lazily with Director Feltsman, like they were talking about the weather instead of details from his last mission.

Although fighting would now be a better way to describe it, Yuuri mused when the Director started yelling. Trying not to get cowed and remember he wasn’t the one being yelled at, the dark-haired man breathed in and spoke out in the next lull between yells.

“Excuse me, Director Feltsman,” Yuuri interrupted, nearly bowing to him. It was one of those ingrained habits he had to stop himself from doing, but  when he was this nervous they came nearly automatic to him. “If I may ask, why am I here? I didn’t take part in the mission you are discussing with Victor.”

It was one thing knowing he wasn’t part of all the mission’s Victor had—he had a job aside from training Yuuri after all, just like Yuuri had his own—but it was another to be there to hear them talking about it. Besides, he didn’t think he was even supposed to.

“You’re right, Katsuki,” Yakov agreed with a voice gruffer than usual, “But it has been impossible, until now, to get Vitya to come here so I had to seize the chance.”

“Because I knew if I came, you were going to yell at me.” Victor shrugged, indifferent to the director’s anger. “It worked out. The mission was completed and I saved the documents. I don’t know why you keep wanting to dwell on it.”

“Because you are a bull-headed impulsive idiot who nearly got the book of Kells destroyed!” Feltsman stopped, visibly struggling with his anger. “We’ll talk more about it later. Now, I called you two because of Katsuki’s next mission.”

“Ooh, great!” Victor clapped enthusiastically. “Where are we going? 19 th century Japan again?”

Yuuri hoped not, but it was going to be pretty likely. There weren’t that many Japanese men outside of their own country before that time, nor that many foreigners in Japan. Having Victor as his mentor didn’t leave them with a lot of options.

“No, Europe, late 20 th century. In fact you are going to Monaco, so I hope you remember that you aren’t James Bond and to avoid any casinos.” Feltsman replied eyeing Victor while handing each of them a dossier. “You are going to be part of the aides to the Olympic committee in time for choosing a new host city. There is a lot of expectation with China.”

“Oh, so we have to make sure they win?” Victor asked, while Yuuri opened his dossier and frowned at the year. 1993 was too soon for the Beijing Olympics.

“No, you are going to make sure they lose.”

Yuuri raised his head to look at Director Feltsman, who looked back at them with satisfaction before continuing his explanation.

“This is the candidature for the Summer Olympics in 2000 which, as you should remember, was celebrated in Sydney, Australia.” Feltsman looked pointedly at Victor, making Yuuri think his forgetfulness wasn’t as much as an urban legend as he thought. “China will be shocked by the loss and will spend the next Olympics getting ready before getting elected as a host for the 2008 summer Olympics.”

Yuuri nodded. He remembered all of that.

“You need to keep History as it was, so Beijing needs to lose this time.” Feltsman concluded, rising up and making the two agents rise too. “This is a complicated mission, which I had doubts about giving it to you.”

“Yuuri can do it!” Victor cut in with a cold smile. “He is well trained and we have already worked together and done well.”

“…because it won’t  just be you two. You have to coordinate with more people and not just field agents,” Feltsman continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “But that also means it’s more difficult for you mess it up so completely that it goes all wrong, so there’s that at least.”

“We won’t.” Victor promised, making Yuuri swallow. He didn’t know why the Russian had so much faith in him, and he hoped against all hope that he didn’t disappoint him.

“Katsuki?” The Director asked, looking at him.

“We will do our best, Director.” Yuuri promised, closing his trembling hands to make them less noticeable. He’d try to prove to the Director that he could do it; he only hoped he didn’t disappoint Victor if he failed.


	5. Keeping Time

The next day saw them again in the Mission Control room, with Yuuri trying to learn a few more details in the last minutes before everything got ready. In a way it was like cramming during exam season again but without the feeling of guilt of having left everything for the last minute  _ again _ . Here, you didn’t get more than 24 hours to learn what you needed  to know before a mission. Sometimes, especially if it was a very urgent one, even less.

  
The good thing about being sent to a couple of decades earlier was that his clothes more or less fitted and he didn’t have to dress up. In fact, they were expected to wear a suit so he had taken the one he had at home and used it instead of the provided ones.

“What  _ is _ that thing?” Victor said, by way of greeting when they met inside the control room where Victor had been waiting for him.

“What?” Yuuri said, looking around before realising Victor was looking somewhere at his chest and looking down. “My tie?”

“It’s horrible!  Don’t you have another one?”

“No” Yuuri replied confused. “And I like it.”

Victor grabbed the tie to inspect it, making Yuuri get closer to him to avoid being strangled.

“It’s polyester?” Victor murmured, before saying completely unintelligible. “It needs to die. We are going out in a moment so you can borrow one of mine at least.”

“You don’t have time.” Leo interrupted them, making Victor let go of Yuuri’s tie, and handing them their time phones. “Be careful with those. It’s easy to forget that, twenty years ago, mobile phones weren’t everywhere. We don’t want anything that looks too much like a smartphone to be seen.”

“Pity, I wanted to make them call the future.” Victor said glibly, before going back. “Are you sure we don’t have time for Yuuri to change his tie?”

“No, you don’t. Go to the door. I’ll be with you to give you the code in a minute. The screen isn’t working.” Leo turned to the person yelling at him at the other side of the room. “One second!”

While their contact went to check what was going on, Victor went back to glare at Yuuri’s tie, making him nervous.

“When we come back we are going shopping and I’m burning that tie.” Victor promised.

Yuuri looked again at his tie. He didn’t understand what was wrong with it but after that reaction he was a bit scared to tell Victor that. Walking to the door they got their codes and last instructions.

“Remember Seung-gil Lee and Sara Crispino are already there. They were sent yesterday but it seems this mission needs more people. Intelligence was rumoured to be sending someone too, but if they did, it was above my security level. If you recognise them, act like you don’t know them unless being told otherwise. Same for Lee and Crispino.”

“We know, Leo.” Victor said.

“ _ Now _ we do,” Yuuri butted in a bit irritated. “It was the first time I’d heard it.” 

With a bit more force than necessary, Yuuri pressed the buttons on the pad to set the door to the correct time. Everything seemed easy for Victor and perhaps it was. After all, he had done hundreds of missions, everything must seemed old news after such, but Yuuri had no idea. He was learning, and for him it wasn’t that obvious; he wasn’t as friendly with the agents as Victor, but he knew them and he could have messed everything up by acknowledging them before he should.

“Safe trip.” Leo’s words were the last thing he heard before crossing the door.

**

The door led to a non-descript hotel room where a severe-looking woman was waiting for them.

“Lilia.” Victor said behind him.

“Long time no see, Victor.” The woman said before setting her piercing green eyes on Yuuri. “My name is Lilia Baranovskaya and I’m the director of the Russian Officers’ Academy.”

“Katsuki Yuuri, ma’am.” Yuuri replied bowing. In some ways she reminded him of his own trainer Minako-sensei, so it was easy to fall back into that training. “Victor is mentoring me through my field exams.”

Lilia hummed looking at him.

“Who trained you? As far as I know, Japan trains through a one-on-one mentorship instead of a formal training like we do.”

“Okukawa Minako.”

The director nodded like she recognised that name.

“That reassures me.” She said. “Your system is a bit touch and go, but Minako is a good mentor and her officers always excel in what they choose to do.”

Except for Yuuri, who couldn’t pass his exams, but that wasn’t something he was going to tell the scary Russian lady.

“What are you doing here, Lilia?” Victor asked, interrupting Lilia’s interrogation of Yuuri, much to his relief. “It seems weird they sent you; which time are you from anyway?”

Lilia frowned.

“ _ This _ is my time; you come from some year in the future, don’t you?” she moved a hand, stopping Victor’s word before they were said. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to know when exactly you came from. In any case, I was sent here by the government because they knew something was going on and they wanted it to be observed.”

“And how will they know that the events that happen are what is supposed to, if all of you are from this time?” Yuuri asked, stifling a shiver when Lilia’s gaze set on him again.

“Because I’ll tell them and they trust I know how this organisation works,” she replied frostily. “I understand it’s done differently in Japan, perhaps more shrouded in secrecy and that’s why it’s only mentorships, but in Russia we train time officers like we train athletes: completely  with the government’s support and supervision.”

Yuuri forced himself to keep looking at Lilia instead of bowing his head and asking for forgiveness as was his first impulse.

“I’m sorry, Madame Baranovskaya. I didn’t mean to doubt you,” he said, earning a nod from her. “How are we going to do this mission, then?”

“I hope fast. I have to go back to my own agents.” Lilia glanced at Victor. “Including the eight-year old version of this one.”

**

Yuuri waited inside the room, while Victor followed Lilia outside, waiting for a few minutes so that they would avoid being seen exiting the room together. It would look strange if part of the Russian delegation left a hotel room with him. Yuuri inspected the accreditation Madame Baranovskaya had given him. He was Yuuri Toyonaga, a Japanese aide for the Olympic delegation under Hisashi Morooka’s orders. Yuuri gulped. According to the dossier he had been given, Morooka was a time officer, from this time like Lilia; and like her, he had come under the guise of being part of the Japanese delegation. Everybody knew there were different government officers in the delegation and it was impossible to know them all. Nobody would notice the extra face.

What worried Yuuri was if the dossier he had been given was  _ accurate.  _ He didn’t want to doubt Lilia Baranovskaya; he didn’t want to know what she would say if she realised he was doubting the information she had given to him, but he didn’t _ know _ her. The idea of talking to someone about time travel, only to discover they weren’t in the know, made him nauseous. Coming to a decision, he looked around the room, making sure he was alone; like someone might appear from behind a curtain, before taking out his phone and dialling a number.

“Is something wrong, Yuuri?” Leo’s voice made him tense a bit, praying he hadn’t made a mistake. “Your contact should have met you already.”

“We met with a Russian lady from this time called Lilia Baranovskaya,” Yuuri said questioningly. “But she gave me info that I should go and meet an officer disguised as a member of the Olympic committee called Hisashi Morooka.”

“Hmm...” Leo hummed while typing could be heard in the background. “The name doesn’t ring a bell, but according to the info we have: yes he is your contact inside the delegation. I will send a picture to your phone so you can see who he is. Don’t forget to take the dossier Baranovskaya gave you. It can’t be left behind.”

Yuuri felt the relief seep into his bones while Leo gave him the last set of instructions and said goodbye. Perhaps he had been a bit paranoid, but he felt safer knowing everything made sense. He had just put the new dossier in his carrier bag when a beep from his phone signalled he had a new message. Amused, he touched a green icon, which opened up into what looked a lot like an instant message app with the face of his contact displayed. Trying to commit it to memory, he deleted it before hiding the phone again. It was very strange to see a mobile phone in 1993; the ones you saw were nothing like the one he owned, and not only because it could call through time. Taking one last look to reassure himself that he had everything he needed and that there was nothing left behind that would change time, Yuuri opened the door.  He followed the corridor to the end and turned left, walking until he reached another hotel room. Feeling like he was in a bad spy movie, he looked around to make sure no one was watching and knocked on the door, opening it when he heard a voice telling him to come in.

“Welcome,” the messy-haired man inside said, bowing to him. “You must be Toyonaga Yuuri. I’m Morooka Hisashi.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Yuuri bowed.

The next minutes were tense for Yuuri even though Morooka seemed like a nice person and his booming voice reminded him a bit of Takeshi, but Yuuri didn’t trust himself not to say something that he shouldn’t. He felt like everything about him was being inspected and analysed and found lacking, so he tried to do his best to learn what Morooka expected of him while he also got more intel. His job as an  intern aide would be easy to do, but it also meant he didn’t have access to the same places as a full member of the committee would: like the room where the final vote was going to take place. He would be allowed inside before and after the results were cast, but not during.

On the other hand, it also meant nobody would pay attention to him, which Yuuri appreciated. He didn’t need someone telling him off because he had forgotten to do one thing or another while he was trying to complete his mission. He had only been doing this mission for about ten minutes and he was already missing Victor and the backup he’d had in his last one, even though Victor hadn’t been able to do much. Speaking of the Russian, how the hell was he going to keep in contact with him? In theory they didn’t know each other. The first delegation meeting would be that afternoon, followed by more meetings and discussions over the next three days, and would last until the final meeting for the 2000 Olympics. 

Suddenly, a shrill beep sounded, making Morooka stop in the middle of his final instructions.

“What was that?” he asked, frowning, making Yuuri pale as he wondered if he could switch his phone off without letting the older man see it. “Is that your pager?”

The younger man nodded, hiding his relief as best as he could in a bow of apology.

“Probably my supervisor wanting me to check in.” He made up on the spot before bowing again, relaxing a bit when the shrill beep stopped. “I apologise Morooka-san, for the rudeness. I should have switched it off before entering, but safety rules don’t allow us to be uncontactable.”

“We have the same rules.” Morooka nodded. “Don’t worry about it. Attend to your other responsibilities and be ready here tomorrow at 7 a.m.”

Bowing again, Yuuri said goodbye and left the room, trying to find a place to hide so he could see what Victor wanted; because only he could be to blame for his near heart-attack. Looking around, he found what looked like that floor’s cleaning closet. After being sure nobody was around, he pulled a card from his wallet, forced the door open and slipped inside, closing the door behind him. Quietly he checked his phone and sighed. There were two missed calls and a lot of messages. Opening the app he started reading.

Victor Nikiforov  
  
Yuuuurii!  
  
Yuuuuuuurii!  
  
Where are you?!(Expressionless Face )(Expressionless Face )  
  
Have you met your contact yet  
  
Is everything okay?(Expressionless Face )(Face Screaming In Fear )(Loudly Crying Face )  
  


Yuuri rolled his eyes at the amount of emoticons which followed every text.

Victor Nikiforov  
  
Is everything okay?(Expressionless Face )(Loudly Crying Face )  
  
Sorry! m(_ _)m  
  
Everything is okay.  
  
I was with my contact. That's why I couldn't reply   
  
It's ok. I didn't expect your contact would keep you for so long.(Expressionless Face )  
  
Sorry! m(_ _)m. Next time I'll do better.  
  
Now I need to find my room.   
  
Which number??  
  


Yuuri looked at the screen a bit surprised Victor hadn’t made any comment about helping him look for his room or another flirty and embarrassing comment. 

Victor Nikiforov  
  
Which number??  
  
414  
  
Fourth floor, next to the fire exit. Mine is next to it!. (Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes )(Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes )  
  
Come, we should plan what we are going to do.  
  
Ok. I'll be there in a moment  
  
Great (Grinning Face With Smiling Eyes )  
  


Yuuri opened the closet door carefully and looked around to be sure nobody could see him before getting out and closing the door again, making his way to the floor below where his room was.

Yuuri hesitated in front of the door to his room for a moment, before turning to the door next to it and knocking. It was tempting to just hide in his room and try to forget about what he had to do the next day, but he knew he couldn’t delay meeting Victor. If the mission was going to succeed, they needed to plan and coordinate together. Yuuri needed the mission to succeed, not only because it would affect his chances of being a field agent, but also because he didn’t like to suck at what he did. A tiny voice inside him made him need to make this mission; like the last one, like all the ones that hopefully would come after, perfect. Or as close to it as possible.

The door opened and Victor’s smiling face appeared. He let Yuuri in without saying anything; Yuuri strangely missed the way the Russian always exclaimed his name when he saw him.

“The meeting with Morooka was okay?” Victor asked, sitting on the bed and leaving the room’s only chair for Yuuri.

“Yes, he’s a bit too passionate about what he does, but he was nice.” Yuuri replied, sitting and leaving his messenger bag on the floor next to him. “He told me what was expected of me as an intern and it shouldn’t be too difficult to do while doing our job.”

“Just let me ask you a question, Yuuri.” Victor said, putting a finger over his lips and making Yuuri internally cringe. When Victor made that gesture, it always meant Yuuri was going to have to revisit what he had planned or thought. “What is our job?”

Yuuri blinked at the absurd question. Victor had been with him when Director Feltsman gave them the mission. Was his memory really  _ that _ bad?

“In general? To keep history as it is. In this mission? To be sure Sydney becomes the 2000 Olympic host instead of Beijing.”

Victor nodded still looking at him like he was inspecting him. Yuuri supposed that if he had become a dancer like he once thought, the feeling before an audition would be similar to this. 

“And how do you plan to do it?”

Yuuri breathed out and deflated.

“I don’t know.” He admitted, dropping his head a bit. He was sure he should know the answer; that he had disappointed Victor, but he wasn’t good at this and that’s why he had washed out last time and…

“Exactly.”

Victor’s words stopped Yuuri’s mental ramblings and made him raise his head, confused.

“Huh?” he asked, before mentally smacking himself.  _ Very eloquent, Yuuri _ .

Victor leaned in, looking straight into Yuuri’s eyes.

“You don’t know,  and neither do I. It’s impossible to figure out what tipped the balance at a closed vote,” Victor explained. “At least for now. We need to investigate and to find the rest of the officers and coordinate with them. This is a team effort. Sometimes you do missions alone, but other times, not only do you not have to, but you aren’t _ supposed _ to. This is one of those times.”

Yuuri thought about what he had just heard. It sort of made sense but it also made everything more complicated and difficult.

“We need to talk to Sara Crispino and Seung-gil Lee, then.” Yuuri concluded. “Do you know where they are?”

“No, but I’m sure we’ll meet them tomorrow at the general meeting.” Victor shrugged. “That should give us time to test the waters and get more info before meeting with them.”

“They probably know more than us. They arrived the day before.”

“True, but in any case it’s always better to look around and come to your own conclusions.” Victor added. “Don’t tell me you didn’t plan to do that.”

Yuuri nodded reluctantly.

“That’s good instinct. I’ve already told you, you have the gut sense an agent needs,” Victor said, like he had said it a million times instead of a few times. “You just need to trust it.”

_ Like it was that easy _ , Yuuri thought, snorting quietly.

“In any case.” Victor continued, unaware of what was going on. 

inside his partner’s head. “Cooperating is important, and in this mission it's probably needed, but that doesn’t mean going to the meeting we’ll have to arrange without knowing anything. We need to add something too.”

Yuuri could agree with that. He hadn’t looked forward to going in at a disadvantage; it would be great if they could avoid that.

“Okay.” Victor rose, making Yuuri get up from the chair. “Early breakfast tomorrow. We won’t know each other until all the countries representatives are presented tomorrow. I don’t know how much the rest will focus on you, but I’m going as Lilia’s assistant so my movements will be under scrutiny.”

Yuuri grimaced. He didn’t doubt Victor could deal with all that attention, he was the best and this was old hat for him, he was sure, but he hoped Morooka wouldn't get that much attention; Yuuri would get caught out if everybody paid attention to him.

**

Yuuri walked down the corridor leading to the dining room, following Mooroka whilst straightening his suit nervously. It was probably a good thing that the first contact was at breakfast instead of a dinner like he was told was the norm for former Olympic committee meetings. He knew himself; he was so nervous he’d try to relax a bit by drinking and nothing good ever came from him drinking.

“Toyonaga-kun.” Morooka said as Yuuri walked to where the man was waiting for him before entering the dining room. “The breakfast is supposed to be a relaxing way to start mingling, especially for the interns and aides that have never been here. We have a table by committee.”

Yuuri turned to look into the room. The table Morooka was pointing to with a tilt of his head was easy to spot thanks to the little flag of Japan in its centre. It was set in a corner of the room so he would have a reason to walk around to get breakfast but he could also eat without being bothered. He nodded discreetly to show he was listening.

“The whole delegation has breakfast together, but until the president arrives, you are allowed to move around. After he arrives, we’ll eat and then leave when he does.”

Yuuri stifled a sigh, that would restrict his movements a little, but he still had a few minutes.

“When will he arrive?”

“In no more than ten minutes.” Morooka replied after checking his watch. “Let’s enter.”

Yuuri followed trying to remember not to rush or show he was in a hurry. He was supposed to be there as an intern-assistant who should feel grateful to be there. No assistant would shame themselves or their country by being an overeager fool. So he waited and left the dossier he had taken with him on the table, before going to take a cup of coffee and look around under the guise of inspecting the buffet. 

  
His stomach gurgled while he poured the coffee. He was hungry and walking around food wasn’t helping, but it let him see that they weren’t the earliest to arrive nor the latest. There were a lot of tables in the room but most of them seated a mix of countries with smaller delegations than the one Japan had sent. He saw most European countries were lumped together and those tables were nearly full, while the ones with American or Asian countries were more sparsely populated, probably because their occupants were dealing with jet-lag.

“Sara!”

Yuuri turned his head enough to look from the corner of his eye. A dark-haired woman was talking animatedly to a man with light brown hair who was wearing an accreditation with a Czech Republic flag. There was Sara Crispino. Before he could decide if he should approach them or go back to the table, Sara saw him and dragged the other man to meet him.

“Buongiornio” she said, smiling and offering a hand to shake, which Yuuri did promptly. “I don’t think I have seen you before and I met all the Japanese delegation in the last meeting.”

Yuuri was amazed how she could act so distant but polite, like they really were meeting for the first times instead of being friendly acquaintances.

“I’m Sara Crispino, from Italy obviously.” She introduced pointing to her accreditation. “And this is Emil Nekola, from the Czech Republic?”

Emil nodded, shaking hands with Yuuri and polite greetings.

“Great!” Sara continued enthusiastically. “I wasn’t sure what the name was in English, with the changes that happened in the last year. In Italy they wavered with a few names until they got bored of saying ‘former Czechoslovakia.’”

“I can understand.” Emil laughed lightly. “I suppose it’ll take a bit of time but it’s a good change. What about in Japan, Yuuri. Did they have problems with deciding what to call my country?”

Yuuri panicked inside. He was four when the former Czechoslovakia split and became two countries. He couldn’t remember that far back, let alone if they had  struggled to decide what to call it.

“I don’t think so.” He replied politely. “We translated from English so it was just one name from the beginning.”

“That’s interesting. Perhaps Italians are too complicated.” Emil teased Sara, making her laugh and making Yuuri wish he could avoid the flirting.

“Probably we are.” She agreed. “At least the men in my family are, and my brother is the worst of them. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t work with me.”

If rumours around headquarters were true Yuuri had to agree it was a good thing Sara’s twin brother wasn’t around. He was known from flying off the handle if he saw any man flirting with his sister. He had never heard any rumours about what he thought about when the flirting was done by a woman.

The flirting continued amongst the polite conversation while Yuuri tried to find a way to escape and keep walking around. There were more people coming in and different conversations could be heard around him in different languages, going from sport results to the Yugoslavian wars to just talking about the weather. About five minutes later he saw the rest of the Japanese delegation arrive and he started to say goodbye to Sara and Emil who, in spite of the flirting, were reluctant to see him go.

“All the aides are going out to see the city while our bosses talk later. Come! It’s going to be fun!” she promised, touching his arm lightly.

“If they allow it I will go. I’m not familiar with Monte Carlo.” He said before bowing and leaving them.

He hoped this city excursion wasn’t the meeting Victor had talked about. It seemed too open for it. Looking around discreetly, while he took a seat at the Japanese table, he saw a familiar silver-haired head on the other side of the room talking politely to a serious dark-haired man with a South Korean accreditation who could only be Lee Seung-gil.

**

Yuuri groaned, looking longingly at his bed. He was exhausted and he had ten minutes to change out of his suit and in normal clothes and sneak out to the meeting with the rest of agents. He didn’t have time for a nap no matter how much he needed it. Victor said when they trained that he had an impressive stamina, but even that couldn’t last in a day that never seemed to end. Who would have thought that walking around a tiny place like Monte Carlo with a group of aides and then going back to take minutes at the Japanese meeting to decide the voting could be so exhausting.  

The visit had been fun and it had been a big group that, to Yuuri’s surprise, Seung-gil had joined, although it was difficult to see if he had enjoyed it or not. The only one who hadn’t joined was Victor, who according to the gossip provided by Tiago, the Brazilian intern, had been recruited as the one to take notes for one of the group’s meetings. He had been right that it was too open a place to talk but Sara, in the guise of flirting with him, had managed to tell him a time and place for it.   
  
After that, he had come back in time for the Japanese delegation meeting to evaluate the pros and cons of which city should host the Olympics and in spite of being there to take the minutes, Yuuri wasn’t sure which way would the Japanese members go. There were 89 members who could vote this time, but only three of them were Japanese and of course voting was secret. At most, Yuuri could guess what they had decided after careful evaluation, but everything could change depending on which cities went out first when the votes were cast.

Yuuri moved from where he was leaning on the door and started to change. He was sure Victor had gotten some information for the meeting, and Sara had hinted that she and Seung-gil had news too, so that left him as the one with nothing to show but guesses. He was a joke of an agent and they had very little time before the vote. Tomorrow, in the afternoon, the representatives would meet for the final speeches and pitches and then they would cast their votes. They had to know before that and he wasn’t even sure he could convince the Japanese representatives to do anything. He wasn’t even expected to talk, interns didn’t get that privilege. He should have stayed at home. He wasn’t doing any good there and it was going to show in the meeting. He was going to embarrass himself and Victor as his mentor. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he sighed and tried to convince himself that he could do it. It didn’t work. Of course not—it was never that easy, no matter how much he wished it— but he got fed up enough with it to get his room key and open the door. He was going to that meeting.

Yuuri walked down the corridor quietly, trying to act like he wasn’t doing anything strange. He was just walking through a hotel corridor, nothing to see.  There was nothing strange happening in the area or anything.  He reached the room Sara had told him to meet at and repressing the urge to look to both sides, he knocked quietly.   
  
The door opened a tiny fraction first and, then completely, showing Sara’s smiling face on the other side. She let him in and closed the door while Yuuri looked around. It was a hotel room exactly like the one he was in but the bed was bigger. Sitting on it was Seung-gil, while Sara sat on the chair next to him. On the other chair on the other side of the bed was Victor, looking serious and facing another chair, deep in conversation with—

“Chris?” Yuuri blinked confused. “You are the Intelligence agent?”

“Welcome, Yuuri.” The Swiss smiled warmly but without any of his usual innuendo. “Sit. We should start. We don’t have a lot of time before someone is missed.”

Seeing as there wasn’t any other space left, he sat on the bed with Seung-gil who just nodded at him.

“Ok. Now that we are all here,” Chris started looking at them. “Any news about tomorrow’s vote? Are any of you going to be allowed in the closed meeting?”

“I may end up being allowed during the presentations, if they want some kind of hostess.” Sara said, rolling her eyes. “But not afterwards. You know it’s too much for my pretty little head.”

Yuuri blinked at Sara’s biting sarcasm. He barely knew her but every time he had seen her she had been smiling and full of good humour. She had to have seen his confusion because she smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, male chauvinism is alive and well in 2014, but Italy in 1993 was even worse and it’s frustrating to deal with it.” She apologised, looking around. “I’m looking forward to being back in our time.”

“I think we all are.” Victor said calmly. “Any idea of what they are planning to vote?”

“Not really. They talk too much, but it may change depending on which cities are left.” Sara shrugged. “If Manchester or Berlin keep winning the rounds they’ll vote for them. But if they don’t, I don’t know.”

“I doubt Berlin will reach the final round.” Chris interjected. “They didn’t, as far as History says, mainly because there were protests a few days before the voting and that has already happened as it should.”

“The dispute will be between Sydney, Beijing and Manchester. I haven’t heard anyone say anything about Istanbul.” Seung-gil cut in. “As it’s supposed to go.”

“True, true.” Chris passed a hand over his stubble. “We do know that it should be a very close vote between Sydney and Beijing, with Beijing in the lead before it goes to Sydney. But our current information says it didn’t get that close and Beijing won by a landslide in all the rounds. Manchester got quite close to being second instead of Sydney.”

“We can talk to the young aides and helpers. We have been talking to them, in fact.” Sara continued, making Yuuri realise that had been the point on today’s excursion. “But we can’t do anything about the ICO members. We can’t reach the ones outside our delegation.”

“Or sometimes even ours, right Yuuri?” Victor asked, making Yuuri blush with embarrassment.

“I…I wasn’t asked directly so I didn’t talk to the president.” He admitted. “Morooka has asked me what I think but I don’t think that’s enough.”

“What do you think they are going to vote on?”

Yuuri mulled on it.

“In other circumstances I’m sure they’d vote for Beijing, but the issues with human rights violations were mentioned a few times during the meeting so I think if they agree on Sydney being a solid candidate that could tip the balance. Perhaps.”

Seung-gil nodded in agreement. The Korean didn’t add anything, which Yuuri supposed was a sign that his country representatives had a similar idea to the Japanese.

“And Russia?” Yuuri asked, looking at Victor who had been quiet after making him talk. It was strange seeing the Russian so serious and aloof. It was very different to how he acted normally. If they hadn’t had another mission together, Yuuri would have thought it was because they were working, but even though Victor took things seriously, he hadn’t been this withdrawn during their time in 19 th century Tokyo. 

Victor put his fingers under his chin and seemed to be pondering over something before a nudge from Chris and a nod made him continue.

“Russia is likely to vote for Beijing.” Victor started. “Not only for the old comradery between the countries but for the bribes the Chinese delegation is giving around. There are more reasons, and I’m not allowed to explain them, but we can count on Russia to not change their vote. Especially if the United States keeps being vocally against China as a host country.”

Yuuri raised his eyebrows at Victor’s words but no one else in the room looked surprised to hear that they couldn’t be told why it was going to happen and how Victor knew it. Yuuri supposed it was something related to why he was the only one allowed in a closed meeting, but it still stung to be left out of the loop when usually Victor shared—and sometimes overshared— a lot with him.

Chris sighed and looked at his watch.

“Okay, we have less than thirty minutes before dinner starts so you should go back to your rooms.” He focused on Yuuri, Seung-gil and Sara. “I know you three aren’t allowed inside tomorrow, unless Sara manages to get sexism to work in her favour. So if you talk to anyone between tonight’s dinner and tomorrow, try to remind them about the human rights issues if you have a chance.”

The Swiss shook his head, frustrated.

“I know it’s not much, but you have to figure out how to move within the limitations,” Chris stopped before smirking. “Or finding the loopholes.”

That seemed to cheer up Sara and Yuuri had the feeling that it had made Seung-gil start plotting something but he had no idea what to do with that. It was frustrating.

“Time to go.” Chris got up, followed by Victor making the rest of the agents to get up too. “I don’t think I have to remind you, but if you see me around, you don’t know me.”

Yuuri nodded along with Sara and Seung-gil while Victor just rolled his eyes.

“You can’t leave all at once.” Chris opened the door a bit before looking back at them. “Sara, Seung-gil, you go first. You are in the same corridor and nobody will think it weird if you are walking to the same place.”

They nodded and scurried out quietly one after the other. Chris closed the door quietly.

“In five minutes it’s your turn.” He said looking to Yuuri. “Victor, are you going with him or waiting more.”

“I’ll go with him.” Victor decided after a moment. “I can walk behind him so it doesn’t look strange but we do have our rooms close to each other.”

“Up to you.” Chris shrugged. “I have work to do but you are welcomed to stay.”

“I haven’t anything more to add, Chris.” Victor shook his head. “But I probably need to explain a few things to Yuuri. I’m sure he has questions.”

“Ah...a few of them.” Yuuri admitted.

“It’s normal. You just need to get in the loop.” Chris said before smirking. “And I’m sure Vitya can teach you anything you want to know.”

“Chris…” Victor growled.

Yuuri blinked at the fast change of tracks. It was like suddenly they had switched off an interrupter and they were again the men Yuuri was used to seeing around headquarters instead of the over-serious agents who had sat in on the meeting.

“Don’t deny it. You know you’d be lying.” Chris added before checking his watch. “Your turn. Be ready.”

He opened the door quietly again and looked before letting them out and closing the door behind them with a whispered good luck.   
  
Yuuri made himself move, walking calmly in the lift’s direction with Victor following a few steps behind. They were quiet the whole way until they reached the lift and stepped into an empty one.

“Victor…” Yuuri took in the risk as they were alone inside the metal cabin. “What just happen?”

“Not now, Yuuri.” The silver-haired man replied, looking at the floor signals. “When we reach my room.”

He nodded before the lift started slowing down and dinged, signalling that they had reached their floor. They continued walking silently next to each other the few meters until the end of the corridor where their rooms were, and without a word they both entered Victor’s room.

“Now, can you explain?” Yuuri asked once he was seated in the same chair he had been last time.

It would be a sense of deja-vu if it weren’t for the fact that Victor was looking at him from next to the window this time instead of sitting on the bed. He looked distracted and was frowning like he was deep in thought and didn’t like where his thoughts were taking him.

“Victor?” he tried again, startling the Russian. “What is going on?”

Victor sighed, walking to the bed and sitting, looking at Yuuri.

“I’m not supposed to tell you this, Yuuri. You are in training, but even if you were an active field agent you’d be a junior one like Sara and Seung-gil before being given the required security level.” Victor put a hand through his hair messing it. “But I do think you have the skills and the sense to be there, you even know more about missions from other agents than the agents who took them.”

Yuuri flushed embarrassed. He knew he had paid too much attention to the mission dossiers and recaps when he worked under Celestino, but he had wanted to know as much as possible and be ready. He wasn’t special, so he had to overcome that with hard work and learning as much as possible.

“You lack confidence in yourself and probably trust in the rest of us.” Victor continued. “So, this is my way of showing you both my confidence and trust in you. I’m going to tell you all that’s going on.”

Yuuri gulped at hearing Victor’s words said so solemnly but nodded.

“You can trust me, Victor. I’ll do my best.” He replied, his voice wavering slightly but determined to prove to Victor that he was right in taking that risk.

“The mission is important and real but that’s not why I’m here.” Victor raised a hand to stop Yuuri’s question. “This is usually the kind of mission you just send junior agents who need experience and perhaps a senior one to supervise or, if it interests Intelligence for some reason, one of their agents as a back-up. But never both of them  _ and  _ an agent in training.”

“Then what are we doing here?”

“The mission is serving two purposes.” Victor moved crossing his legs. “On one hand, what Yakov told us is true. You need to experience a complicated mission with different agents and limitations so you know what to do in these cases. On the other, I was needed for an audit if you want to call it that.”

Yuuri blinked. “A what?”

“There is something going on with the Agency that we haven’t managed to figure out.” Victor uncrossed his legs. “It looks like tiny pieces of bad luck: things going wrong in missions that should be clear cut, changes that slip past the mission agent and make us scramble to fix them  _ again _ so History doesn’t change. Things that, if considered separately, don’t make us look closely—we are human after all and mistakes happen and we fix them as we realise them— but one after another, they are too many to be a coincidence.”

“And this mission is one of them.” Yuuri concluded with wide eyes. “How?”

“That’s what Chris and I—mainly Chris— are trying to figure out. He knows there is something wrong with this mission but I don’t know if he knows the whole scope or why. He probably does —there is a reason he is one of the best at what he does— but he hasn’t said and I haven’t asked just in case.” 

“Are there any suspects?”

Victor shrugged. “Nothing definitive. We have a few ideas but nothing we can say for sure, so we are just fixing things as they go and trying to do it before they become too much.”

“Why would anyone mess with time on purpose?” Yuuri asked, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes. “It doesn’t make sense. They aren’t getting anything out of it, are they?”

“Not that we know of, but that’s a good question.” Victor looked pensive for a moment, before shaking it off. “In any case, if you see anything strange tell me, but your mission is the same as Sara and Seung-gil’s: to ensure this Olympics goes to Australia.”

Yuuri bit off the whine lodged in his throat. Victor had more important things to worry about than his inability to get things moving on the right path. He wasn’t going to bother him with his incompetence. He’d have to find the way to convince Morooka—and the rest of the Japanese delegation— to vote for Sydney.

“Is that why you couldn’t explain why Russia is going to vote for Beijing?”

Victor looked surprised at the question. “No? I thought that one was obvious. I know the reasons because I have been in the meetings thanks to Lilia and sharing them with agents from other countries would be controversial at best and treason at worst.”

Victor got up and got in Yuuri’s space, leaning close to him and putting his hands on his shoulders.

“We work for the United Nations, Yuuri, but, we are also members of our own government in one way or another. We have oaths to fulfil and it’s always a balance to not betray one or another.”

“And if it’s impossible?” Yuuri asked trying not to focus too much on Victor’s eyes.

Victor smiled. It was a small bittersweet smile that made Yuuri ache.

“You sacrifice something. That’s how people got exiled, how people become corrupt or how people focus on their job and forget about life, love and any other ties that can be used against them.” Victor sighed and separated. “My oaths are mainly to preserve History and I won’t go against them but if I learn things that don’t affect my mission I won’t share them. I owe myself and my country that much.”

Victor seemed to pull himself out of a dark place and smiled at Yuuri.

“But that’s not something you need to worry about for now. Just focus on the mission and at this time tomorrow we should be home. And we need to hurry if we want to be in time for dinner.”

Yuuri could sense a dismissal when he heard it, so he tried to smile at Victor—and felt like he was grimacing instead— and said goodbye. He had to become Toyonaga Yuuri, the intern, again.

**

The dinner was a bit more relaxed than breakfast had been—or perhaps Yuuri was feeling less tense about it after spending a good part of the day playing tourist with the same people who were now around him in the buffet— and while he was supposed to eat with the rest of his delegation, talking lightly with other people while the president was around was less frowned upon than this morning. He was chatting politely with a Mexican intern about what they had seen earlier in the city when they were interrupted by one of the members of the British delegation.

“Hi, sorry to interrupt.” The blonde man had a strong accent, making Yuuri frown a bit trying to guess what he was saying. “Could I ask you both a question?”

Yuuri and Pedro, the Mexican aide, shrugged and nodded.

“Sure, why not.” Pedro said.

“If I say Manchester what do you think about?”

“Manchester United.” Pedro said immediately. “I’d say the Beatles, but they were from Liverpool not Manchester right?”

“You are right. What about you?”

Yuuri tried to think of anything but he was drawing a blank. “I don’t know. Just that it’s an English city.” He bowed apologetically. “I’m sorry.”

The blonde man frowned but shook his head. “No, don’t be sorry. Thanks for your help.”

He left without another word.

“What was that about?” Pedro asked, seeming as confused as Yuuri felt.

“I don’t know.” He admitted before shrugging and going back to his earlier conversation.

**

The following day arrived fast, too fast in Yuuri’s opinion who had barely slept because of the nerves. The day before he had tried to talk to Morooka about why he was worried about Beijing’s issues with human rights and he had spent the night thinking what he could have done better —or at least differently— to convince the older Japanese man, and trying to dissect his conversation with him. Morooka had nodded and answered his questions about China and had asked what he knew about Australia, making Yuuri admit that they had their own problems but seemed to be doing better than China. Morooka had been nice and polite but had seemed to be just placating him, which was frustrating and weird because he apparently wasn’t important enough to be told what they really thought. The only glimpse of something that perhaps could be useful, had been him going deep into thought when Yuuri had asked if the USA could veto a host country, seeing as the American committee was very opposed to Beijing’s candidature. He didn’t know if it would change Japan’s decision, but he had done everything within his power that he could think of. Not even a whole night without sleep had let him find any other option.

Everybody at breakfast was buzzing with nerves and soon the 105 members of the Olympic Committees—the 89 allowed to vote and the ones belonging to the candidate countries— accompanied by the host cities’ representatives and entourage, went inside a room. It had been decided that everybody who had been involved could be there for the final pitch and speeches, but afterwards, only the members and the candidate hosts’ representatives would be in the room. Yuuri placed himself next to a wall near the end of the room where he could see but not draw attention to himself. He was nervous enough as he was. Suddenly a voice in his ear made him jump.

“Have you slept tonight?” Victor asked worried. “You look like crap.”

“Not really, I had too many things spinning inside my head,” Yuuri shrugged. It wasn’t the first time it happened. “But I’ll be fine. I’ll sleep when I get home.”

Victor’s answer was stopped when Juan Antonio Samaranch—the president of the International Olympic Committee— started his speech to present the cities and start the final meeting, but Yuuri could feel Victor’s gaze on him during the whole speech.

The next few hours were tedious. Long speeches about why every city was the best. Istanbul’s mayor didn’t seem to believe what he was saying and Berlin had too many excuses after more than 10,000 people protested against hosting the Olympics to be viable candidates as Chris had told them the day before. But what confused Yuuri —and by his mutterings, Victor too— was what Manchester was trying to do.

“Why did the video show Buckingham Palace and other buildings from London?” he muttered to Yuuri. “Isn’t there anything on Manchester they can show?”

Yuuri shrugged, thinking on his weird conversation with the English aide the day before.

“Perhaps not,” He replied before telling Victor about it.

“The members aren’t going to look favourably to that identity crisis or whatever it was,” Victor predicted. “We’ll see where those votes go.”

Finally it was time for Samaranch to thank all of them, Yuuri felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to look at Victor who just put a finger over his lips and winked at him. The clapping filling the room made Yuuri look back to the front of the room where everybody who wasn’t allowed to be there during the vote was getting up to leave. He turned again to look at Victor but frowned when he saw an empty space. Decided to not make a spectacle that could draw suspicions over any of them, Yuuri left the room quietly and looked around to see if he could find Sara or Seung-gil.  After walking around and looking inside a couple of rooms where people were waiting, he spotted them in a corner of the cafeteria trying to not draw attention to themselves.

“Hey.” He got close to them quietly. “Any news of how it’s going?”

Sara showed him her phone which had an instant message on it.

“Chris said the first two rounds are going as expected. The first to go was Istanbul and the second was Berlin. Now they are voting for the third time and one of the members has withdrawn their vote to avoid some kind of conflict of interest,” Sara shrugged.

The phone vibrated very lightly on her hand. Yuuri looked around to see if the noise had drawn any attention, but the cafeteria was pretty empty and the few people around were too busy chatting to each other to pay attention to the three young people in the corner who seemed to be gossiping about something.

“Manchester just lost that one. And Beijing won it, like the two rounds before.” Sara said quietly. “This is when everything is decided.”

Yuuri felt his mouth go dry and suffocated the sudden urge to pray to any deity he could think of, that everything went as it was supposed to. He stopped breathing for a moment when Sara’s phone vibrated again.

“Sydney 45. Beijing 43.” Sara said excitedly, barely staying still. “We did it.”

The relief made Yuuri go weak in the knees before breathing in and starting to move.

“Where are you going?” Sara asked aloud making heads turn their way.

“To the vote room, they should be finished by now.” Yuuri’s words made the other people in the room check the time and rush after him, curious to know the results that the three of them already knew.

That Sydney had won against all bets soon spread around and Yuuri hadn’t reached the room where the vote had taken place before it was common knowledge.

“So, everything went well.” Chris talked next to him, making him jump. What was with people sneaking up on him today? “Time to go home.”

“And Victor?” he asked, looking around for a silver-haired man without luck.

“He had to go back.” Chris said without giving more information. “He’ll be waiting for you when you get back. That’s all I can tell you.”

“But is he well?” Yuuri asked while lots of terrible scenarios run through his head. “Makkachin?”

“Both are fine. Don’t worry.” Chris soothed. “Go back, Yuuri.”

Yuuri nodded and slipped out of the room. He still had to say goodbye to Morooka and act like he was leaving with the rest of the Japanese party in a few hours, but he should sleep today in his own bed. If the worry about what could have happened to Victor let him, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interestingly enough most of what I have written in this mission happened. At least what happened with the votes and the results, some things we will never know how happened


	6. Time after Time

Yuuri crossed the door into their headquarters and looked around. Everything looked as usual: people in front of their computers, a few agents waiting for their turn to cross and go to their missions. Nothing that could give him any idea of why Victor had left early. He saw Leo coming his way, smiling as usual.

“Welcome back, Yuuri. How are you?”

“Good. Less tired than in the last mission. That time-lag was insane.” He rummaged his pockets to find his phone. “Here. Your time phone.”

“Thanks,” Leo smiled taking it. “And I hear you about the time-lag. You spent too much time in the past and the ideal would have been to coordinate better with this time, even if you couldn’t disappear one month from our time. But that’s how it worked out. This time you returned three days after you left, exactly the same amount of time that passed in 1993 so you should be fine.”

“Hey, have you seen Victor?” Yuuri asked interrupting Leo. If you let the handler talk about time lag, he could spend hours going about it. “I was told he left before I did and should be already back home.”

Leo nodded, bouncing a bit. Yuuri wondered how he always had so much energy. “Yes, he arrived two days ago. He should already be around again if the lag didn’t hit him too hard.”

Yuuri nodded and after a few minutes of small talk he said goodbye. Leo didn’t seem to know why Victor had arrived earlier, but didn’t seem worried about it, so he either didn’t know what was happening or he did know, but thought it wasn’t important. Yuuri wanted to think it was the latter, but after how secretive  Victor had been in 1993, he was inclined to believe it was the former. He went through a fast recap with Director Feltsman, who wasn’t surprised to see him alone, but paid attention to his report. It surprised Yuuri a bit because his report probably would be the same thing Sara and Seung-gil would say when they arrived in a few hours, but less detailed. He hadn’t done that much after all. The Director didn’t make a lot of comments, but looked at him like he was trying to make him confess any mistakes he could have done. Yuuri tried hard to not say he hadn’t done anything, and to make it seem he had added something to the mission, but he was sure the Director thought it had been a mistake sending him to 1993.

“That’s enough Katsuki. Write your report and you have tomorrow off. Be back in your job in Records on Thursday.”

Yuuri nodded and got up to the door before asking shyly. “Director Feltsman, did Victor come back?”

“Yes. He should be resting if he knows what’s good for him,” he said darkly.

“Is he okay?” Yuuri asked, worried, earning himself a suspicious look from the Director.

“Like usual. Don’t worry about it Katsuki,” Feltsman replied, dismissing him.

Yuuri nodded, leaving the office and going back to his desk where he spent the two hours he needed to write his report trying to think of anything that could clue him to what could have happened to Victor. He wanted to see him and check that he was alright, but he didn’t know exactly where the Russian lived and, in spite all the times Victor had offered, he didn’t have his phone number either. Yuuri wanted to smack himself. It would be so much easier to send a message and ask if he was fine, but no, he had to avoid getting the number because why would Victor Nikiforov want to give it to him except because he was too polite? He sent his report in and got up. He couldn’t stay inside the building one more minute. He was buzzing with anxiety and the only way to keep it in check was tiring himself out. 

Getting out of the headquarters he looked around trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his day, when the crowd coming back to the building him made him check his watch. Lunch time. Perhaps he knew where Victor was, after all.

**

For once in his life, luck was on his side and Victor was calmly finishing his lunch in the small restaurant he had taken Yuuri to a month ago.

“Yuuri,” He exclaimed when he saw him and waved him in. “You’re back. Have you eaten yet?”

Yuuri shook his head and sat without protest while checking Victor. He looked well but tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, but if the big heart-shaped smile was any indication, he was in a good mood. So whatever had happened wasn’t life-threatening at least. That much he could guess.

“I just did.” He admitted, stopping for a second to tell the owner what he wanted to eat. “I was worried when Chris told me you had left earlier. I thought something had happened.” 

Victor touched his hand before moving when Yuuri’s food arrived.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine,” he said when they were left alone again. “I just had to check something and pick Makka up from the sitter.”

“Sure?” Yuuri pressed. “I know you can’t tell me details but...”

Victor put again his hand over Yuuri’s, making him stop talking.

“I’m sure.” He smiled slightly. “But thanks.”

“I just worry,” Yuuri muttered, flushing and focusing on his food.

They spent the next minutes in silence, with Yuuri eating and Victor drinking coffee and looking at him from time to time. It was making Yuuri nervous but he didn’t want to tell Victor anything. Despite the nerves, he was also enjoying it.

“So, what are you planning to do with the rest of your day?” Victor asked idly when Yuuri had finished eating. “Any plans?”

“Not really,” Yuuri shrugged. “If it were earlier I’d go skating, but the rink is going to be packed with children and lessons.”

Yuuri frowned. He didn’t want to go home; he was too unsettled to focus on reading or playing video games. He could go for a run, but it wasn’t that appealing either.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” Victor suggested. “I have to walk Makka and I was planning to take him to the centre and spend the afternoon there”.

Yuuri agreed without a second thought and they got up, settled the bill and went out with warm words from the owners.

“They’ve adopted you, haven’t they?” Yuuri asked, amused.

Victor shrugged. “Looks like it. They have a daughter around my age but she lives abroad so I think I have become their outlet for parenting. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these days they start giving me leftovers to take home.”

Yuuri snorted amused but didn’t say anything while they walked back to Sagrada Familia and dodged the groups of tourists queuing to get inside or take pictures of the exterior.

“I don’t know how you can live here. It’s so crowded.” Yuuri said after a tourist nearly stepped on him walking backwards to get the perfect selfie.

“You can find quiet places if you just avoid the cathedral.” He said while they crossed and started walking up Avinguda de Gaudi. “It’s funny how there are many things here like this avenue, and like the hospital a bit farther away, but they are hidden in plain sight because everybody focuses on the cathedral.”

Yuuri looked at Victor from the corner of his eye.

“And do you find those hidden things often?” he asked.

Victor turned to look at him. “Not always, but when I do, I try to appreciate them as they deserve.” Victor stopped in front of a big door iron door. “This is my building. I live on the last floor but there is a lift. Do you want to come in?”

Yuuri thought about it for a moment.

“Nah, I’ll wait here. It’s just going to be a moment, right?”

“Sure!” Victor said, smiling lightly. “Just go up, get Makka and come back down. Five minutes at most.”

“Then I’ll wait for you here,” Yuuri said smiling until Victor got in and then he groaned. He was an idiot, he should have said yes.

**

The trip to the centre was nice but with an undercurrent tension between them only broken by Makka asking for pets, which Yuuri was extremely glad to provide. It wasn’t just because it helped to distract him, but also because Makka reminded him of his little Vicchan. But when the dog flopped onto the metro floor and they finally had to talk, it was there, like electricity under his skin. Even then, it was easy to talk about anything. Seeing the Russian smile and just look at the other passengers on the metro helped Yuuri to forget, for a while, his worry about why Victor had left the mission early. They had planned to take the metro to Plaça Catalunya, but they weren’t in a hurry, and that would have meant changing trains. So they opted to get off at Passeig de Gracia and take a leisurely walk with Makka at their side, leashed, but still trying from time to time to run over to a pigeon.

The afternoon was sunny and warm for an autumn day and —while Passeig de Gracia and Las Ramblas were crowded— they seemed to be left alone when they reached the old port with its promenade made of wooden planks. There were a few people here and there, but Yuuri finally had the feeling that he wasn’t going to be walked over by a hurrying tourist who was trying to not miss the pick-up time for their cruise. It was perhaps a bit strange to be there with Victor and Makkachin, but Yuuri couldn’t deny it was nice. He was trying his best to ignore the tension between him and the Russian and just enjoy the walk. They seemed to have reached some kind of unspoken agreement and the conversation was light: gossip about work, the last things their friends did—  _ I swear it, Yuuri, he went to the guy and asked if he wanted an  _ ass _ istant, stressed that way. I still have no idea how that guy hooked up with him _ — or were probably going to do — _ Phichit is going to rule the world honestly. I’m pretty sure he already knows everything thanks to social media _ — to just more personal things that any other time they had just skirted around.

“You know, I like our job.” Victor said when they reached the edge of the promenade at Maremagnum, just in time for the sunset. “But I think... no, I know, I have forgotten a lot of things. They always tell us that to be the best you have to sacrifice a lot; and I did. Perhaps too much.”

The Russian looked at Yuuri.

“You can be great. I think you can be better than me.” Victor pressed while Yuuri shook his head. “I mean it, Yuuri. But don’t do what I did and become so focused on your job that you leave love and life aside. It’s really difficult to get them back once you do.”

“Have you managed to get them back?”

Victor looked at him solemnly. “I’m trying to. But I don’t know if it’s working.”

Yuuri looked at him with the sky getting red in the background without really knowing what to do or what to say. Sighing, Victor just shook his head and looked down to where Makka was lying happily, his tail thumping.

“At least Makka is a good company.” He said brightly, petting the dog and earning himself a kiss. “Makka!”

“Perhaps we should go back.” Yuuri said, looking around. “It’s getting late.”

Victor nodded and they started the way back to Las Ramblas to get the metro, but before they could reach the closest station Victor stopped again.

“You have tomorrow off, right?” he asked. “Any plans?”

“Not, really. Sleep, watch a movie if I’m in the mood,” Yuuri shrugged. He had an appointment with his therapist too but in any case it seemed it was going to be a slow day. “Why?”

“Do you want to go skating?” Victor asked hopefully.

Yuuri thought about it for a moment, but agreed before he could think about it too much and give an excuse.

“11 is good?” he asked. He had time to go to his appointment and back. “We can go to eat later. I owe you katsudon.”

Victor’s smile got big and heart-shaped. “That sounds great. See you tomorrow.”

Victor got into the metro while Yuuri walked up the street to take his bus, thinking all the way back about what the hell he had gotten himself into.

**

“I’m a fucking idiot,” Yuuri said as he walked in and closed the apartment's door.

Phichit raised his head over the sofa, phone in hand. “You aren’t an idiot. You  _ act _ like an idiot a lot. I’ll give you that.”

“Thanks, Phichit,” he glared at his friend while leaving his coat and keys on the dining table. He’d take them later, probably when they needed to eat. “I do know the difference.”

“Sometimes I’m not sure you do. You like pulling yourself down,” Phichit shrugged. “In any case, what happened?”

Yuuri went to the sofa, making his friend move over to let him sit while he told him about his afternoon with Victor.

“Oh Yuuri,” Phichit sighed, looking a lot like he wanted to hit his head against a wall. “Why did you do that? Seeing as you came in saying you are an idiot, I guess you do know you’re interested, and so is he.”

“I don’t know?” Yuuri said helplessly. “There were all these little chances all afternoon but I just couldn’t… I’m sure I could have kissed him, and Victor would have been agreeable, but…”

“First, agreeable? Very Victorian of you, pun not intended and a huge understatement. Everybody knows it. That guy has only got getting naked in front of you left.”

Yuuri flushed, making Phichit stop.

“He has?!!” he exclaimed. “Why haven’t you said anything!? This is the kind of thing you tell your best friend.”

“It was in Japan.” Yuuri looked down at the sofa like it was very interesting. “We were there for a month and you do know baths are communal. It just happened.”

“I’m sure if you asked for a repeat, he'd do it,” Phichit said. “I'm not going to forget this and I'll ask for details later, but back to the topic. You are interested, you know he is. Why are you here instead of at his apartment?”

Yuuri shrugged dejectedly without raising his head.

“Try to think about it, because you’re sabotaging yourself,” Phichit said gently. “Talk to me, talk to your therapist, write it down. Do whatever you prefer, but figure it out because you are only hurting yourself, Yuuri.”

Yuuri sighed, nodding, before remembering another thing Phichit had said and turning his head to look at him.

“What did you mean when you said everybody knows it?” he asked warily.

“Exactly what I said,” Phichit replied with a mean smile. “Neither of you are what I’d call subtle, and I’m saying this as your dear friend and the King of Gossip. Everyone is rooting for you both, Chris also confirmed it.”

“You talk to Chris?” Yuuri groaned, hitting his head against the sofa. Nothing good could come out from that. “Why?”

“Because our best friends are idiotically in love with each other?” Phichit asked rhetorically. “And also there’s the small tiny detail that we work in the same area, Yuuri. I may spend my time among computers instead of travelling through time, but I’m just as much of an Intelligence officer as he is.”

“And you are a great one.” Yuuri said quickly. He could tell Phichit was a bit offended by his comment. “It just that the idea of both of you plotting against us scares me?”

“We’d only do it for your own good,” Phichit smiled. “Like locking you inside a closet or something like that. The coming out would be fun.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do than to talk about our love life?” Yuuri glared.

“For that you’d have to have one, Yuuri,” Phichit reminded him. 

“I know.”

“If you don’t figure out why you keep sabotaging yourself, Chris is planning to make Jesús help him lock you both in a room. I warn you,” Phichit threatened. “I’d help too, of course.”

“Jesús?” Yuuri asked trying to ignore the rest.

“Chris’ boyfriend,” Phichit moved a hand like it wasn’t anything interesting. “He is in one of the Spanish field teams. Yes, Yuuri, you know him. The guy dressed as a priest we saw that time we tried the cafeteria’s idea of sushi?”

Yuuri shuddered. Never again. But he remembered the guy. He had been telling some story about French soldiers and everybody around him had been laughing.

“That’s him? I have seen him around, yes,” Yuuri admitted. “But I didn’t know he was with Chris.”

“He knows how to be discrete. Not like others.” Phichit teased. “But yes. It’s not common knowledge but…”

“You know everything.”

“Except what is going inside your head,” Phichit rose up and touched his forehead. “Think, but do it later. Now put that coat in your room. I’m gonna make dinner and I want to eat it somewhere.”

Yuuri rose too and started moving around thinking about what Phichit had said. He circled the idea while cooking dinner and eating but couldn’t exactly point out what it was until later that night. He was glaring at his bedroom ceiling in the dark, trying to put into words what had been going inside his head, why he hadn’t acted, why he was so scared.

“Fuck,” He muttered. He was scared, that was it. To make a mistake, to have his heart broken, to trust someone that much. It was scary how much he liked Victor and how much Victor seemed to like him too. But especially going there, exposing himself was terrifying. What he had to figure out, was if it was more or less scary than the idea of never getting to be with Victor and how much he would regret it if it happened.

**

The following day Yuuri was up bright and early. He usually hated getting up, especially after one—two if he counted the one back in 1993—long night with very little sleep, but he was so nervous he wasn’t even tired. His appointment with his therapist had left him a bit exhausted but feeling less manic, so at least that had been useful. It had helped him put into words what he had realised the previous night and it was a bit cathartic to say aloud that the regret about not taking the risk with Victor would be worse than the fear he felt. Now he just had to cling somehow into his hard-earned mental peace and survive a whole morning with Victor at the ice rink. 

He was doomed.

He was aware it wasn’t  _ the _ first time, but it  _ was _ the first time they met on purpose... and there was something about it. Something  _ more. _ It made him hope and nearly believe all the flirting he had seen Victor do was actually focused on him. That he could really take the risk and kiss him and it would be reciprocated. Yuuri laced his skates and stepped onto the ice, doing a few laps to warm up before launching himself into a spin. He usually preferred to do compulsory eights, but today he felt a braver, perhaps even a bit reckless; like he could go and act without thinking about the forty different ways in which it could end badly.

“Yuuuri!!” Victor exclaimed from the door of the rink as he stepped out onto the ice. “You arrived early.”

Yuuri shrugged. “Not by that much.”

Victor skated lazily up to him, a smile on his lips.

“No jumps today?” Yuuri teased after a few laps together in silence.

“Let me warm up first at least,” Victor replied. “I thought you didn’t like them.”

“I didn’t like seeing you fall and I don’t do them because I’m bad at them,” Yuuri shrugged. “But if you can manage without falling...”

Victor narrowed his eyes, unable to ignore the dare. “You’re on.”

The Russian moved away and started skating faster before throwing himself into a single loop. It had enough height that he could probably have tried a double but he shrugged when Yuuri asked about it.

“No sense in injuring myself trying to show off,” Victor said carelessly. “I did enough of that the last time. Talking about last time, you were teaching me some steps!”

Yuuri blinked at the change of subject but didn’t press about it. He didn’t mind having Victor close while he tried to teach him some steps, even if they spent more time goofing around than actually doing anything resembling steps. They were both cold but in very high spirits when their stomachs reminded them it was time to eat, so they took their things and went out to take a bus to reach the Gothic quarter. Yuuri loved that area, walking around narrow streets flanked by old stone buildings and shops. Victor walked along with him, pointing to things they both had seen a million times but not caring in the slightest, before they twisted around a corner and into a dark narrow alley.

“You have to know the place to find it, but they have very good food,” Yuuri promised, stepping in, Victor at his side. “Let me ask if we can go upstairs. I doubt it’ll be crowded today but it’ll be quieter.”

Yuuri talked to the waiter while Victor looked around. It was a tiny restaurant covered in dark wood with a few cloth decorations and little else. When the waiter agreed he moved to climb the steep staircase next to the door, Victor following behind.

“I know it’s tiny, but I swear the food is good.” Yuuri repeated, feeling nervous.

“Yuuri, you have seen my favourite restaurant. This is bigger,” Victor said gently. “I like modern and very cool restaurants but if the food is good I don’t mind the rest.”

Yuuri swallowed nervously, but was saved by the waiter’s arrival to ask their orders. After both ordering katsudon—“that’s why we are here, aren’t we?” Victor said when asked if he preferred to order anything else— they tried to get back to the warm comfortable feeling that had been between them during the morning. It was a bit difficult but the food helped them get back on track.

“Vuskno!!” Victor exclaimed when he tried the first piece. “This is delicious, Yuuri!”

Yuuri relaxed at seeing the Russian really enjoy the dish and started to eat his too. It was great food, but it couldn’t compare to his mom’s.

“Really? I need to try that.” Victor said between bits. “This is amazing. I can’t believe it can get better.”

“You’d have to travel to Japan. My parents own a traditional inn with a hot spring and can’t leave it alone to come to visit me,” Yuuri shrugged. “I try to visit them from time to time. But it’s expensive.”

“I can imagine.” 

“Do you go back to Russia often?” Yuuri asked trying to remember if Victor had said anything about it. “Where are you from in Russia? Moscow?”

“Nyet. Saint Petersburg,” Victor replied after swallowing rice. “And I don’t go that often. Most people I know are here or working there with us so it’s not worth the money. I miss the city, and the seagulls here remind me a lot of Saint Petersburg. But I’m not sure if it’s home anymore.”

“I know the feeling,” Yuuri admitted. “I miss my family and I miss Hasetsu but every time I go back I remember why I left. It’s nice for a visit, but not forever.”

Victor didn’t say anything but kept looking at him in a way that made Yuuri feel bold and reckless again, like he could do anything he wanted to... and also giddy. Before he could think twice he leaned over the small table and pressed his lips against Victor’s for a moment. The silver-haired man seemed frozen, looking at him with a expression he couldn’t figure out and a hand over his lips.

“Yuuri,” He murmured.

“Victor,” Yuuri said, flustered. He didn’t know what to say. Not sorry, he wasn’t  _ sorry, _ but perhaps sorry if he didn’t like it or want it. What if he had been too impulsive and it was unwelcomed and…

Yuuri’s panic came to a screeching halt when he felt Victor’s lips over his. The light pressure getting bolder when Yuuri reacted, opening his mouth slightly.

The sound of someone climbing the stairs made them move, both looking flustered and trembling more than seemed necessary.

“Should we take this somewhere else?” the Russian asked with a tremble in his voice that Yuuri identified with hope.

He knew what he was getting himself into. Or at least that’s what he hoped. What Yuuri knew for sure was that he didn’t want to listen to the voice in his head telling him he should stop. Not today. He knew he wanted and needed to see where this could take them, even if it scared him to death.

“I think so,” He said. “Your place? Phichit’d have already arrived at home by now.”

Victor breathed in before getting up and gathering his things.

“We can pay downstairs, right?”

Yuuri nodded, imitating him. The sooner they could leave. the better. Outside, Yuuri breathed shakily, earning a worried glance from Victor.

“You know we can just leave it at that, right? He asked.

Yuuri tilted his head to look him in the eye. “I don’t want to,” He said grabbing Victor’s coat and pulling him in. “I may be nervous, but I want this. I want you.”

Before Yuuri could say something even more stupid, he kissed Victor again. Kissing him was amazing and addictive and it meant he was too busy to say embarrassing and stupid things. Perhaps he should just spend the rest of his lifetime kissing the Russian and be done. He didn’t think it was a bad way to spend a life.

“Hey,” Victor said softly, looking at him like he was the centre of the universe and making Yuuri go red from embarrassment. Embarrassment that grew worse when a teenager walking by cat-called them. 

“Perhaps we should move,” Victor laughed giddy. If Yuuri hadn’t seen him drinking water at lunch, he would have thought Victor was tipsy.

The journey to Victor’s place seemed to be never-ending. The Russian had suggested taking a taxi instead of dealing with different metro lines and walking, but in the end common sense won. It was close to rush hour and getting through the traffic jam would take longer than using the metro. But although it made sense, that didn’t make it  _ easier _ .

“You know, if we had taken a taxi I’d be touching you now.” Victor murmured in his ear, making him shiver.

“Like you are doing right now?” Yuuri replied, glaring at an unrepentant Victor who just smiled and shrugged. “What are you plotting?”

“Me? Nothing?”

Yuuri didn’t believe that for a second. He kept looking at his partner who was now seated next to him like a model citizen. He knew the Russian was plotting something.

“I’m just thinking about how much I want to touch you. How much I want to see you fall apart. To  _ take  _ you apart,” He murmured in Yuuri’s ear a few minutes later once Yuuri had relaxed again.

“Victor,” The Japanese man growled, earning another innocent look. So that was the game? Well two could play at it. He moved in his seat, like he was trying to find a more comfortable position and trapped one of his hands between him and Victor. It was warm in the metro, so they both had taken out their coats and that made easier to move Victor’s sweater a bit and touch the skin underneath. The Russian jumped slightly when Yuuri’s fingers made contact, but it soon turned to a shiver when the touch became a light caress on his side.

“Yuuuuri!!” Victor whined.

“Hmm?” he asked, looking at him with big innocent eyes. “Is there something wrong?”

“No,.” Victor admitted grudgingly. “But…”

“But?” he pressed, while moving his fingers close to Victor’s back, earning a suffocated groan as his only answer. Yuuri knew he was playing with fire but Victor had started the teasing and Yuuri had decided he was going to finish it with the upper hand.

“Oh, look, our stop!” he said brightly, getting up and getting close to the door. He could hear Victor’s groan from behind him perfectly, but he couldn’t help the shiver when the Russian got close again and inclined his head to whisper in his ear.

“You are going to pay for this, you little tease.”

Yuuri looked over his shoulder with a small smile on his lips. “I’m looking forward to it.” He replied, maintaining his gaze. It was a dare and neither of them was good at not being competitive. They got off the metro, staying close to each to other and continued that way all the way out and for the few minutes it took to walk from the station to Victor’s place. They walked in silence, just touching each other lightly over the clothes, and from time to time, stopping to kiss. Yuuri was sure all the tourists around Sagrada Familia had a picture of them kissing but he didn’t care. He had more important things to think about, like how Victor tasted or if he could replicate whatever he had done that had made Victor make that sound between a groan and a whine. Yuuri was sure neither of them knew how they had reached the portal, but he remembered clearly the lift. Especially how cold it felt pressed to his back, how Victor’s hands felt under his shirt, how all the layers of clothing they wore were too many and the few minutes they needed to reach the last floor seemed to become eternal.

How Victor had left the keys fall to the floor when he had moved his scarf and put his lips to Yuuri’s neck. He remembered barely getting into the flat between kisses and pulling at their clothes and nearly falling and breaking their necks when a giddy Makkachin appeared from nowhere and jumped on them.

“Makka. I love you but not now,” Victor complained from the floor, getting a slobbering kiss and a playful bark as a reply. “Oh yeah, you are going to the kitchen.”

Yuuri got up with him and looked at Victor’s back pulling a tugging Makka to the end of the small corridor. Yuuri used the time Victor needed to calm and settle Makkachin to look around. The flat seemed to be as big as the one he shared with Phichit, perhaps a bit more. But where their apartment was crowded but still comfortable and homey, Victor’s looked too airy. It would be unfair of Yuuri to say it looked like a magazine picture, but it was close: white walls, grey colours and dark wooden furniture. From what he could see of the dining room, it was the same. It wasn’t cold but it didn’t invite you to burrow in a blanket with a mug of tea. It was a bit too beautiful to not be afraid of dirtying it. Yuuri walked a bit closer and what he saw confirmed his feeling: a dark sofa and a huge wall to wall bookshelf were the only inviting things in a room a bit too modern with too many lamps.

“I should get rid of a few of them,” Victor said, making him jump.

“Huh?” He said rather intelligently while trying to calm his racing heart.

“The lamps,” Victor elaborated. “I bought them when I lived in Russia where winters are long and dark. But I don’t really need them here. There’s enough sunshine.”

Yuuri agreed. Barcelona didn’t have temperatures to be considered winter but being able to have sun nearly every day was amazing.

“So, where were we?” Victor asked before nibbling on his neck. “I remember telling you that you were a tease?”

“Show me what you do with teases.” Yuuri dared.

Victor softened visibly. “What if I show you what I want to do with you?”

Yuuri swallowed, finding his mouth suddenly dry. “Even better.” He said, more calmly than he really felt.

Victor swooped down, kissing him hungrily, like he had been starving for ages and suddenly had a feast in front of him. Yuuri felt at the same time swept away and in control, like he was in the centre of a hurricane but could master the winds. It was dangerous, exciting, and made him feel powerful. Soon kissing wasn’t enough and Yuuri’s hands started to move on his own accord over Victor’s back down to his waist where they started pulling at his clothes. He needed more. 

“More?” Victor asked breathless, seemingly reading his mind.

Yuuri bit him on his neck as an answer before licking the place to soothe it, earning a groan.

“Bed,” Victor groaned again when Yuuri moved his lips over his neck, from the centre up to his ear. “Before my legs don’t let me stand.”

They navigated the distance between the dining room and Victor’s bedroom without separating from each other. Too greedy for each other, needing too much to kiss and touch every place they could reach. Just moving their hands to avoid crashing against a wall or pulling at clothes, until Yuuri felt his legs touch a bed and stopped for a second before letting himself fall onto it. He expected Victor to follow him but the Russian stayed at the foot of the bed looking at him with dishevelled clothes, darkened eyes and hunger on his face. Like he wanted to swallow him whole, and Yuuri would welcome it; before he consumed Victor too.

“Come here,” He said with a raspy voice, sitting on the bed and taking off his sweater.

Victor’s answer was to take off his shoes and kneel over him, like he was a panther stalking his prey... but Yuuri wasn’t a prey, and he wouldn’t stay hidden or run. Not from Victor. Never from him. He closed his arms around Victor, making him lean on him before turning them so he was on top. He had a moment to appreciate that Victor had a huge bed and enough space to do that, before the Russian distracted him again, pulling him into a kiss and rubbing against him.

“Too many clothes,” He said when they had to break apart to breathe.

He moved, earning a whine from Victor and a sigh from his own lips before starting to take off the rest of his clothes. Victor stayed still for a second before following suit with harried movements; even then, Yuuri thought he was the most beautiful and graceful man he had ever seen... and at least for now he was his. Like he was Victor’s. Not being able to resist anymore, he crawled back onto the bed, touching Victor and biting his lips, drawing a hiss when their erections rubbed together. 

“How do you want to do this?” Yuuri asked still rubbing over Victor. He knew what he wanted but he needed to be sure they were on the same track.

“I don’t care if it’s you inside me or the other way around. I just want you in any way you’re comfortable with,” Victor said, his flushed face in huge contrast with his serious expression. 

Yuuri hissed as his mind pictured Victor riding his cock. 

“I want you inside me. Like this.” He replied sitting on Victor’s waist and rubbing his ass against his erection. “I’m not opposed to the other way around. But I have been fantasizing about this for weeks.”

“Yuuri…” Victor groaned. “You can’t tell me those things.”

Yuuri flushed and tensed, suddenly embarrassed. “Sorry. Too much?”

An arm circled his waist and pulled him down so Victor could kiss and bite his lips.

“Never. You are never too much,” Victor looked  him in the eye before smiling sheepishly. “I just fear this is going to finish before we start it.”

Yuuri laughed lightly, relaxing against him before kissing him again. Luckily the mood hadn’t been shattered, just delayed, and soon the heat was rising up again.

“Tell me you have lube around.” Yuuri groaned suddenly while rubbing himself against Victor. He needed to be fucked now. Victor tried to lunge to the side but with Yuuri laying over him, it was impossible so in the end he just pointed to one of his bedside tables. The Japanese man scrambled and took what they needed before giving both lube and a condom to Victor.

“You do this part,” Yuuri was glad he was already flushed and it couldn’t be known if his face was red from embarrassment or from everything else.

Luckily Victor just looked at his face and nodded without saying anything.

“Give me a bit of room,” He asked leaning on his elbows before moving to sit with Yuuri still on his lap. “If anything feels uncomfortable let me know. Or if it feels great.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes. “Thanks, but it’s not my first time Victor. I know the drill.”

Victor kissed him deeply. “Still. Tell me. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Yuuri nodded before getting distracted by a finger touching his entrance and pushing in. He hadn’t lied when he had said it wasn’t his first time but it had been ages since he had had sex and it was a bit uncomfortable in the beginning. His body slowly got used to it and he lost himself to the rhythm, murmuring to Victor what felt good and guiding him until he found what he was looking for.

“There,” Yuuri groaned when his prostate was brushed, making him rub his erection against Victor. “Don’t stop.”

“If I don’t, it’s only going to be my fingers, solnyshko.” Victor murmured shakily, pulling his fingers out and looking for the condom. “Help me a bit?”

Yuuri looked around, squinting until he found the wrapper and handed it to Victor, letting him move to put it on. It was just a few minutes, but felt like ages to Yuuri, who couldn’t help kissing Victor like he was starved when the Russian was ready. Not even the pressure of Victor’s cock could distract him from the kiss, determined to commit to memory everything about the silver-haired man. Yuuri broke apart, groaning while Victor slid in.

“Move when you are ready,” The Russian said in a deep and strained voice when he bottomed out. “You set the pace.”

Yuuri breathed in, nodding before he started to move; going faster as he relaxed and looked for the correct angle, the heat rising with every movement of his body, gasping when Victor moved his legs planting his feet on the bed for leverage and thrusting with him. Yuuri could feel he was close, every thread of his iron-clad control unravelling one after the other.

“Close, Yuuri,” Victor panted.

“Me too,” Yuuri replied pulling at his cock, driving himself towards orgasm until he came with a groan all over Victor’s body. The Russian followed close after him. Yuuri let himself fall over Victor, not paying any attention to the come and the sweat, just moving with Victor’s rapid breathes and trying to recover his own.

“Come here,” He heard Victor’s murmur and felt a pull on his body, making him move his head so he could be kissed. They kissed until Yuuri felt too gross and said something about a shower, making Victor move and pull him into the bathroom. The space was a bit too small for two grown men to shower together but they didn’t care. Too entranced with each other to stop their hands from roaming over each other’s bodies—first under the water until they felt too pruned and then over a towel as they dried each other— before going back to bed.

“I should go and make sure Makka hasn’t destroyed the kitchen.” Victor murmured, kissing Yuuri’s shoulder, cuddled behind him on the bed.

Yuuri burrowed against his warmth. “In a moment?” he asked hopefully.

“All the moments you want, solnyshko.”

“Solnyshko?” Yuuri asked, looking at him over his shoulder. He had heard Victor call him that earlier but it hadn’t really registered until the Russian had repeated it.

“It’s a pet name,” Victor explained frowning a bit as though deep in thought. “It literally means little sun, but you could translate it as sunshine or sweetheart.”

Yuuri flushed with pleasure. He had always thought pet names were embarrassing, and they  _ were, _ but he could admit to himself there was something about them too.

“You don’t like it?” Victor asked, looking at him a bit worried, and Yuuri realised he had been quiet too long.

“No. I like it,” He admitted shyly. “Not for work, but here or outside.”

Victor kissed the side of his head. “That’s fine.” He sounded strangely relieved. “I admit it slipped out. What about Japanese pet-names?”

Yuuri hummed thinking. There were a few but he thought they were corny or embarrassing as hell.

“There are, but I prefer the nicknames close ones use.” He said before stopping. “But I can’t use yours.”

“Why not?” Victor frowned. “If you don’t want to, it’s fine. But I don’t mind them. In fact I’ll probably nickname you. Russians do it too.”

“Because you would be Vicchan and that was my dog’s name.” Yuuri groaned. “He was a toy poodle, like Makka but tiny, and they had named him Victory which was too big for him so he became Vicchan. He died three years ago and I still miss him.”

Victor hugged him tight while Yuuri tried to swallow the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat.

“I wouldn’t mind sharing a name with your dog. You loved him.” Victor said a few minutes later in a gruff voice. “But if it’s too much, you can use the Russian versions: Vitya or Vitenka?”

“Two?”

Victor explained all the logistics and grades of closeness implied with every nickname making Yuuri’s head swim a bit until he got it. That’s why he had told him the first time they ate together that he could call him Vitya and had felt so sad when Yuuri hadn’t wanted to because it had felt too personal.

“So Vitya normally, but I can call you Vitenka?” Victor drew a sharp breath when he pronounced the last one. “You like that one.”

“I like both, but do I like the idea that you’d want to take this to a point where the last one would be used between us? Yes I do,” He admitted self-consciously. “As I’d like to call you Yuranya or anything you’d feel comfortable with.”

Yuuri thought about it, but it was difficult to get it past embarrassing.

“Give it time. Everything doesn’t have to be solved today.” Victor murmured, kissing him again and roaming his hands over his skin.

Poor Makka would have to wait a bit longer.


	7. Losing Time

That was the first time Yuuri stayed at Victor’s flat(much to Phichit’s joy, showed in an ovation as he opened their flat’s door the following morning) but not the last one. He was extremely embarrassed to talk about his feelings, but the fact that they were there was something obvious for both of them. Between that and the missions coming one after the other, and his own hours at Records, Yuuri hadn’t had time to get bored or to do anything else. Everything was going so  _ well  _ that a part of him was worrying about when the other shoe was going to drop. He couldn’t leave it alone in his head.

“It does seem I’m getting a lot of missions lately, doesn’t it?” Yuuri asked one day, raising his head from where he had it placed on Victor’s shoulder.

It was a rare cold evening —at least by the city standards— and they were just lazing on Victor’s sofa, cuddled under a blanket and with a movie on tv they weren’t paying attention to. Victor nodded, distracted, playing with Yuuri’s hair. It was getting longer and perhaps he should get it cut, but he didn’t want to. It was weird to realise how many things he had kept doing because he thought he had to, or because he thought it was expected of him, although nobody had ever told him so. Like his haircut. To see that nothing bad happened if he didn’t follow his strict self-imposed rules and that most of it was him putting obstacles in his own path had been frustrating and even a bit humiliating.

“Vitenka?” he asked again, drawing a sigh from Victor. That wasn’t a good sign. Victor’s usual reaction to his nickname was over the top enthusiasm, not silence.

“It’s a bit of mix. Part of it is my own mission. But it is also true you need missions to get ready for your certification, and more experience never hurts, so your training serves as an excuse for my mission and you benefit from it.” Victor explained at last. “And you’ll keep getting missions; I think we are close but we are still trying to figure it out.”

Yuuri nodded, he wasn’t that great of an asset and he knew he needed a lot of training. If that helped Victor to finish his own mission then, he was glad to be of help.

“When do you think my certification exam is going to be?” he asked idly, running his fingers over the arm Victor had draped over him. Yuuri stilled when he felt Victor tense. “Vitya?”

“Soon. Before Christmas, that’s for sure.” 

Yuuri tensed, Christmas was in a month. That left him too little time. 

“I admit, I’ve been doubting whether to tell you or not.” Victor continued, oblivious to what was going on his boyfriend’s head. “You get yourself blocked when you are extremely nervous or put yourself under too much pressure, but you do fine if you avoid that. I told myself I’d tell  if you asked, though.”

“Even if I hadn’t, you don’t have the right to decide that for me, Victor.” Yuuri said seriously, looking at him over his shoulder. “Boyfriend or not, even if, as you say, I do better when I don’t pressure myself that much, it’s my decision to make.”

“You’re right,” Victor replied, hanging down his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay,” Yuuri breathed in. “Less than a month. I can do it.”

“You can do it, solnyshko. But don’t feel bad if you need another try” Victor shrugged. “Not everybody does it the first time.”

“Second.”

“Or second,” He continued. “But if you need another try, there’ll be another time. Don’t worry about it.”

“And if I get it? We stop having missions together, right?”

“Probably. You know we usually work alone.” Victor sighed. “But there’s the rest of it, Yuranya.”

Yuuri nodded, feeling too selfish to admit it wasn’t enough.

“So I’ll get another mission soon?” he asked, turning back to the topic.

“Probably tomorrow or the day after. Yakov was muttering about one thing or another.”

 

**

They left the room snickering to each other. The mission had been a success but completely ridiculous.

“Why?” Yuuri pouted exaggeratedly “Don't I look like a Chinese tea merchant?”

Victor looked at Yuuri from head to feet, decked in 17th century clothes, with an interested gleam in his eyes.

“You know you do, Yuranya,” he murmured pulling him closer and making Yuuri sigh happily. They were at work and he should protest but he didn’t really care right now. “But I have no idea what made that noble think tea leaves were edible.”

Yuuri snickered against his shoulder. “Technically they are, but not to eat like it was a salad. Russians are crazy.”

“Hey, not all of us. Only our nobles and that’s why we got rid of them.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Vitya,” He teased.

“Do you know what amused me more than the crazy nobles?” Victor snickered. “To see Minami again. He may have grown up a bit but his hero worship of you is as big as when we visited his time.”

Yuuri groaned. Victor was right but it had been embarrassing how effusive the other Japanese man had been, following him around as much as he could. Minami was also disguised as part of the Chinese embassy that had gone to sign the peace with the Tsar, so he hadn’t been able to dodge him.  Still, it was a very mind-boggling seeing the 16-year-old boy he had met barely two months ago, now be a man in his early twenties and a time agent on his own. It was an unexpected side effect of time travel and he’d have to get his head around it.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Victor asked softly oin his ear, pulling him from inside his head. He hadn’t even realised the Russian had gotten so close to him.

“Shouldn’t it be a euro?” he joked. “I can’t do anything with a penny.”

Victor squinted at him. “A euro is worth way more than a penny, Yuuri.”

“Aren’t my thoughts worth that much?”

“Oh there you are, lovebirds.” A voice cut in, reminding them where they were.

They turned around to look at Chris who was leaning against a wall. “You were late for the mission and we had to call other agents. I don’t mind working with Jesús, but Spaniards and French don’t mix well, especially in the 19th century. Yakov is going to kill you.”

Yuuri frowned confused; looking at Victor from the corner of his eye he seemed as confused as Yuuri.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. We didn’t have any mission in France, we just came from Russia.”

“Tell me it was to meet the family.” Chris looked uncharacteristically serious.

“No, we just came from Russia in 1689.” Yuuri added. “That was the mission we got.”

“Nothing about Paris in 1870? No idea about the Hokusai?”

“I know what you mean.” Yuuri said— how could he not know the Japanese man whose prints inspired the Impressionist movement. “But no, we didn’t have a mission about it. And you know my memory is good.”

Sometimes, even too good. It was painful remembering one day after another when he fucked up.

Chris sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of. Okay, what we are going to do is you both keep the usual protocol and go to debrief with Yakov and then go home. I’m gonna look around and we’ll talk later.”

Chris looked at Victor with a raised eyebrow, earning a nod from the Russian.

“We’ll wait for you.”

“It’ll take some time, if you want to go and celebrate,” Chris leered, making Yuuri groan loudly and drawing some glances in the corridor. Nobody seemed surprised though, Chris’s reputation as an impenitent flirt without a filter was well known.

The couple said goodbye to Chris and continued on the way to Director Feltsman’s office. The happy mood they had when they left the mission control room had been completely shattered and both Yuuri and Victor were deep in thought.

“Do you think Director Feltsmann will be angry with us?” Yuuri finally asked.

Victor shrugged. “I don’t know. He could be at the beginning but we have the mission notice with his signature sending us to check that the Treaty of Nerchinsk happened accordingly.”

Yuuri wasn’t too confident about that. Victor always seemed to not mind the director’s yelling, but he hated it. For once it seemed luck was on their side and it was as Victor had predicted, a bit of yelling before the director saw the papers and started muttering angrily. It wasn’t a big improvement but at least there was no more yelling.

“Good job with the treaty,” He said. “You know the drill: write the report, be back here the day after tomorrow. Katsuki you can go. Vitya, stay for a moment.”

Yuuri nodded, looking at Victor briefly.

“I’ll go to your desk when I’m finished,” Victor promised.

Without having anything else to do, Yuuri got up and went to his desk in Records. He didn’t know how long it was going to take Victor to come, but at least he could have his report finished. By the time Victor came to get him, Yuuri had already finished his report, sent it in and had time to tidy his desk and start to worry about how long it was taking the Russian.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Victor said, getting inside his office. “I had to do a quick stop and do my own report.”

Yuuri raised his eyebrows, surprised. Victor worked hard but he preferred to do his report first thing in the morning when he came back, much to director Feltsman’s annoyance. It wasn’t what he should do according to the rules, but he wasn’t the first, nor the last agent to prefer to rest first and then write it.

“Yakov wanted to check them today.” He explained, shrugging. Yuuri had the feeling that Victor wasn’t telling him everything, but something in the way he was acting made him not ask.  “Should we go?”

Yuuri nodded, taking his things. He had already packed so it was just a few seconds to grab his bag and coat. “Your place?” he asked rhetorically. He wasn’t going to leave him until Chris told them what was going on.

Victor nodded, pulling him closer. “I think Chris had a very good idea and we should celebrate,” He murmured, caressing Yuuri’s cheek with his lips and making him shiver.

“Vitya.” Yuuri warned. “Not here.”

“That’s why I said my place.” The Russian smiled unapologetically.

Yuuri rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything while they moved out of his office and the headquarters.

“That was a bit too much even for you,” He said when they were finally out of the building and had taken a pair of city bikes to ride to Victor’s place.

Victor just looked at him before paying attention to the road. The drivers were used to cyclists everywhere but it didn’t make it less dangerous. 

“I know,” Victor said when they stopped at a traffic light. “But I promise I’ll explain when we get home.”

Yuuri nodded grudgingly. All that secrecy was rubbing him wrong and he needed to know what was going on as soon as possible.

**

“I was expecting to interrupt something more interesting,” Chris said when he let himself in to Victor’s flat at some time during the afternoon. “Seeing you at the office it seems you can’t keep your hands to yourselves. Especially you, Vitya.”

“I’m not an idiot and I know you have a key.” Victor reminded him from where he was cuddled against Yuuri on the sofa. “And who says we have stayed here the whole day? We arrived a long time ago.”

Yuuri opted for remaining quiet while he checked the clock. They had been in the flat for three hours and had seen Chris a long time before that. The Swiss had spent at least six or seven hours getting whatever information he was going to share. Chris left his coat and walked into the dining room with the ease of someone who knew the place and had been there several times.

“Okay, let’s get down to business, uh?” He said, opting to sit on the small coffee table in front of the sofa and making Victor and Yuuri sit straight. “I have been digging around, and as usual there isn’t a lot of information left. I suppose you already know by now that you weren’t supposed to go on that mission. In fact it was supposed to be a training mission for a Russian training agent from this time. Do you know a Mr. Yuri Plisetsky, Vitya?”

Victor thought for a while, before talking. “The name rings a bell so Yakov has mentioned him. Probably one of Lilia’s protégées who is showing promise. If he is being sent through time it’s because he wants to be a field agent and they are getting him ready to pass the exams.”

“Yeah, that’s what I got when I checked.” Chris agreed. “For what is being said I think the kid will be here when his 18 th birthday arrives if not earlier. If you were older I’d think he’s your replacement, Vitya.”

Victor shrugged, completely unfazed. “Perhaps in a few years if I get bored. But back to the topic, is there anything we can do? Because all the lines of investigation and clues we have checked ended up being dead-ends.”

“Perhaps. I’m checking a list of people but it’s been extremely time-consuming and frustrating,” Chris sighed, letting his head fall. “Having to be secretive isn’t helping. I’m sure your friend Phichit or anyone from his team could check all this faster than me.”

“You can ask him.” Yuuri said. “He can keep a secret. And it isn’t like you are being completely secretive. You told me and you shouldn’t have.”

“True, but Victor was feeling bad about lying to you and I thought we needed a bit more of help,” Chris added. “And now it’s probably a good idea too. Can you tell him to come?”

Yuuri nodded, fidgeting on the sofa until he could pull up his phone to text Phichit. His friend responded immediately. One of the good things about having a friend who should have his phone surgically removed from his hand was that he always replied in seconds.

“He’ll be here in ten or fifteen minutes if he manages to find one of the Bicing rental bikes.” Yuuri said, pocketing his phone. “Which he will. He always does even in dock stations where there are usually none. I think he has hacked the city’s website and always knows where to find one.”

Phichit arrived in the promised fifteen minutes and hadn’t even gotten comfortable before he was asking questions.

“You know this is on a need to know basis, right?” Yuuri pressed. He trusted Phichit but he needed to make sure. “And you probably  won't know all of it. I don’t.”

Phichit knew enough of how his best friend’s brain worked not to be offended by his words. “Yeah, I got it. Not even my Hamsters will know,.” He agreed while leaving his messenger bag on the coffee table and taking out his coat.

“You know, I have always wondered. Why do you call your team ‘Hamsters?’” Victor asked, getting more confused when Yuuri and Phichit snorted.

“Blame one of your coworkers,” Phichit explained between snickers. “He said we hid in small holes and stole when nobody looked, like mice. I said to him that yes we did, but people saw us and thought we weren’t doing anything and kept us around. More like hamsters than mice.” Phichit shrugged. “It stuck”.

“Who said it?” Chris asked, rolling his eyes. “Field agents always underestimate you. They do with us too, but not on that level.”

“One of the Spanish agents. He was an asshole.” Phichit said, not giving it any importance. “Not Jesús. But his name started with a J too. Joselu, I think.”

“It was.” Yuuri confirmed. 

“Jesús is an asshole too, but of a different type. Joselu? He was the worst type of asshole and I’m glad to tell you he isn’t working for the agency anymore.” Chris rolled his eyes again. “And good riddance.”

Yuuri could see that there was more to that statement but Chris didn’t look inclined to share.

“Anyway, back to topic,” the Swiss man put the conversation back on track. “Someone changed their last mission; they should have come with me to Paris and ended up in Russia. Can you check when was the log changed and by whom?”

Phichit moved to get his bag. “That is easy,” he said taking out a small laptop and opening it. “Give me a few minutes.”

“Do you need the wifi password?” Victor asked.

“Don’t worry I got it on my phone earlier,” Phichit said absentmindedly, looking at the screen. “By the way you shouldn’t use the default password.”

Victor raised his eyebrow while Yuuri stifled a snicker. Nobody believed cheery, happy Phichit could be a dangerous hacker, but he was.

The smashing of keys was the only sound you could hear for a few seconds, before the rest decided to leave him to his search and started talking.

“Anything else we can do while Phichit works his magic?” Victor asked. “What else have you found?”

“Nothing you don’t already know, Vitya,” Chris sighed. “Some money missing here, that mission that took longer than it should there, some weird mishaps like your own… nothing you can track exactly, but it’s always there.”

“Anything in common in all those missions?” Yuuri asked. “Country? Continent? Agents?”

Chris looked at him over his glasses. “That was the first thing we searched. We know how to do the basics. Nothing. Nada. The only thing in common is that the missions are always from before the 90’s. The last… let’s call it an inaccuracy for lack of a better word, is from a mission in Canada in 1988.”

Yuuri leaned on the sofa, and moved his head, leaning on Victor and looking at the ceiling trying to think.

“What happened in the early 90’s?”

“A lot of amazing things, my birth included. But probably the most important thing it’s that our favourite network —the internet— started to spread in that decade and change life as our parents knew it.” Phichit said, looking up from his laptop. “Okay, I found a trail. Whoever did this isn’t an expert, but he knows what he’s doing. At first glance it looks like your change in missions was done by Yakov or someone on his name, like his assistant.”

“His PA would be more likely; Yakov hates computers and uses it as little as possible.” Victor cut in. “And Georgi wouldn’t do it. He likes drama but not the kind that would come from that.”

“As I was saying, at first glance  _ it looks _ like it was Yakov.” Phichit continued, levelling a look at Victor for interrupting before looking at the laptop’s screen again. “But digging in deeper, it was done from a different computer than the ones in Yakov’s office, and nobody should approve anything from other terminals. I’d need a bit longer to see how much I can follow but it seems…”

Phichit frowned and glared at the screen, muttering in Thai before typing again.

“It’s not from us.” He concluded later, frustrated. “I can’t pinpoint exactly where using your connection without doing it fast and giving me away, or needing a lot of time, but it looks like they aren’t even from  _ here _ .”

Yuuri frowned at the way Phichit stressed the last word. “‘Here’ as in Barcelona or ‘here’ as in this time?”

“Both. Neither. I can’t English right now.” Phichit growled frustrated. “But whoever is doing this, they aren’t in Barcelona  _ or _ in this year. To tell you more I’d have to be in the headquarters. I need access to the backup system.”

“In any case, we are going to have to go there,” Chris said, getting up. “If they aren’t from this time or place, headquarters is the only place where we are going to be able to chase them.”

Yuuri barely bit back the groan threatening to escape. He had just come from a mission. He only wanted to sleep for a year and probably spend time with Victor after that, preferably in a way that involved a bed.

**

Going back to the headquarters was the last thing he wanted to do and by the look on Victor’s face he thought the same. But there they were, back in front of the building, this time during the night.

“You know when they switch on the lights; it looks even more like a dildo.” Chris mussed looking at the blue building. “I thought it wasn’t possible.”

Victor hummed in agreement while Yuuri looked at Phichit who simply shrugged. There wasn’t anything redeeming to say about the Time Organisation Headquarters: it looked like a bright blue dildo at night.

“We should go in before someone sees us around and thinks we are thieves.”

“Well technically…”Phichit started.

“Stealing from a thief is still a crime,” Yuuri felt obligated to mention. “At least if you get caught.”

“That’s my best friend. I was starting to wonder if it had been buried under all the ‘I’m a responsible agent now’.”

“Hey!” Yuuri glared at Phichit offended, but he didn’t look sorry at all. “Like I haven’t had to be the voice of reason before.”

Phichit shrugged. “True. But we should go in before someone sees us.”

Yuuri rolled his eyes and turned to look at Chris and Victor who were too quiet. He saw the two of them were looking at something on Chris’ phone and frowning.

“What’s the problem?” he asked getting closer to them and dragging Phichit with him.

“Jesús sent me a message.”

Yuuri waited. He couldn’t see anything strange about Chris’ boyfriend texting him, so there had to be something more. “And?” he finally asked when no more words were forthcoming.

“And he is in a mission in Madrid. In 1999. He shouldn’t be texting me from fourteen years ago.” Chris explained.

“In theory it’s something that could get you fined.” Victor continued. “But that wasn’t the case so we are trying to figure out what is going on.”

“What does it say?” Phichit asked, getting closer to see the screen

Chris turned the phone so everybody could see it.

“Your friend should come for a visit.”

Yuuri blinked at the cryptic text.

“Who is he talking about?”

“We think it must be me.” Victor shrugged. “It’d make sense if he has seen something that shouldn’t be there. He knows what we are investigating.”

“Didn’t you say that all the missions that had been tampered with were before the 90’s?” Yuuri reminded them. “1999 is a bit later than that.”

“Still. It’s the only thing in common we got.” Chris sighed. “I asked him, but for now let’s go inside and see if Phichit can track the culprit.”

The building was completely silent, so much that it seemed creepy, which, added to insufficient lighting, made it look even scarier.

“If an axe murderer suddenly appeared from behind a pillar I wouldn’t be surprised at all.” Phichit muttered.

Yuuri nodded in agreement, trying to make as little noise possible. It was extremely creepy.

“Okay, do you need to go to a particular place?” Chris asked, looking around. “The security guards must be on patrol, so we need to move.”

“Records,” Phichit said firmly, to everybody’s surprise. “The back-up connection there isn’t monitored and the guards don’t go there either. Nobody cares about that floor.”

Phichit looked apologetically at Yuuri but the Japanese man shrugged. His friend was right. That was one of the reasons he had chosen to work there until he retired. If he fucked up it wasn’t going to affect anyone. Or if it did, it would be very little.

“Records it is,” Chris said, shrugging. “Let’s move on.”

They skulked around the building avoiding the areas where the cameras swept and using the stairs to go in. Yuuri was appalled by how easy it was to reach Records. Probably nobody would have  even noticed if they had gone in with a marching band following them.

“As I said, nobody cares about Records and the flight of stairs we just used only goes there and to the cafeteria,” Phichit shrugged. “If you want to reach the upper levels or the gate then it’s different. But who is going to steal papers you can mostly find in History books or the internet?”

Yuuri mused about it, sitting in a corner of a storage room at the back of the floor while his best friend set his computer up and started typing. Victor sat next to him, leaning his weight on the wall behind them and observing both Phichit and Chris next to him, pointing to something on the screen.

“You know, those two meeting was probably the best or the worst thing that could have happened to the world.” Victor mused. “And it isn’t like we can be blamed for it.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Yuuri grimaced. “I don’t think they kept in touch that much until we started seeing each other.”

“It was before that,” Chris cut in. “You two were so painfully oblivious we had to meet to commiserate about how our best friends were idiots. You were a week short on being locked in a supply closet, let me tell you.”

“Chris, that only works in movies,” Victor glared at his friend.

“We were that desperate Vitya.” Chris groused. “You have no idea how frustrating it was to see you both pining over each other when you didn’t have to.”

Phichit made a sound of agreement without taking his eyes from the laptop. “I think hitting your head against a wall would have been less painful.” He said. “Okay, I found the trail again and, as I had suspected, our friend isn’t from this time or place. I can see they moved through the system in the gate. Quite intelligent, the door is opening and closing all the time between missions and check-ins so they just had to wait and slip in, do their thing and then slip out when another chance came.”

“Can you find out from where and when they came in?” Victor got up and moved closer to look at what Phichit was doing. It still amazed Yuuri how his goofy boyfriend could go from playful to serious and professional in less than a minute.

“Not really.” Phichit looked frustrated. “If the gate was open, maybe—and I do mean the maybe part— I could search for them, but our best bet would be to be catch them when they come in and then follow.”

“So, then? That’s it?” Yuuri groaned hitting his head against the wall. “We wait until the next time?”

The rest looked as frustrated as he felt.

“I’m afraid so,” Phichit sighed. “I can program a tracker now that I have their signature,  and monitor the system automatically, but that’s it.”

“Do it,” Chris said. “I’ll tell Yakov tomorrow, but in any case don’t get caught. You’d get into trouble.”

It was serious enough that Phichit didn’t even scoff at the thought of being caught.

“Let’s get out of here before  _ we _ get caught.” Yuuri sighed. He was tired, the night had been a disappointment and he only wanted to get into a bed and  _ sleep.  _ Preferably for the next thousand years.

The morose feeling clung to the group while they snuck back out of the headquarters and went to a bike dock a bit further down the building so they wouldn’t be observed. It was too late for the metro on a weekday and a taxi would have been too conspicuous, but bicycles were silent and Barcelona’s inhabitants were so used to them that nobody paid attention. They talked for a few minutes but the lack of success was pulling all of them down so they soon said goodbye.

“Are you coming or are you staying with Victor?” Phichit asked while they watched Chris ride away. He lived closer to the centre and had a longer journey than them. Yuuri looked at Victor quizzically. On one hand he wanted his bed, and his room, and curling himself over Victor in it. On the other Victor’s bed was more comfortable.

“Makka is alone and I can’t call the sitter now.” Victor shrugged. “I have to go home but you can go to yours and just come tomorrow. Up to you.”

Yuuri thought about it for a few seconds before giving up.

“Yours. It’s closer.”

“Yuuuri!” Victor complained. “Are you coming because you are feeling lazy?”

“Just a tiny bit?” he admitted. “And because I love your bed?”

Victor gasped, offended. Yuuri could see he wasn’t really offended, just playing around and he tried to suppress the urge to apologise. It was true. He just wanted to be in a bed as soon as possible. That Victor’s included the man himself was a great bonus he wasn’t going to mention.  Yuuri blushed a bit when he heard Phichit snickering at their antics.

“Okay, you two,” Phichit moved to a bike, still snickering. “Have fun and try to rest if you can.”

The Thai man winked at them and rode away. Yuuri looked at his back feeling a bit guilty. He knew he hadn’t been spending as much time as he used to with his friend. Phichit seemed to be fine about it, but that didn’t make it right. He vowed to go back to their flat the following day and spend time with him. 

“Shall we?” Victor swept his arm outward. His gesture was grandiose as usual, but Yuuri could see the dark circles under his eyes and how all of him broadcasted deep-bone exhaustion if you knew how to look under the big smile and the theatrics. Yuuri couldn’t help himself and pulled Victor into a hug —and it was some kind of wonder he didn’t have to restrain himself, that he knew Victor would be glad to have Yuuri in his personal space. As soon as he closed his arms around Victor’s back, the Russian collapsed against him, exhaling in a sigh that spoke volumes about his exhaustion.

“Are you okay to ride back home?” Yuuri asked worriedly. It wasn’t the longest of rides but it was all uphill. Victor nodded against him.

“I’ll be fine.” He muttered against his clothes. “It isn’t that far away.”

Not very reassured, Yuuri let him go and kept an eye on him during the whole journey. After they arrived, the Russian seemed to only have energy left for taking off his clothes, brushing his teeth and collapsing on the bed, not even being completely awake enough to mutter more than nonsense when Yuuri got in bed with him and curled against his back.

“Good night, Vitenka.” He murmured against Victor’s skin before letting his breathing lure him into sleep.


	8. Time is of the essence

The phone ringing in the middle of the night made Yuuri jump awake. He looked around, trying to figure out in the dark where he was, relaxing a bit when he heard Victor’s groan of distress next to him and the sounds as he tried to get the phone from the bedside table.

“Chris,” Victor said, checking the lighted phone screen and thumbing at it. “Chris. What’s the problem? It’s…” Victor moved the phone to check the time. “It’s 04:20 a.m. Why are you awake?”

Yuuri sat on the bed, looking worriedly at Victor. It had to be something serious for Chris to call them in the middle of the night. 

“Are you sure?” Victor asked, rubbing his nose. “Yeah, of course I trust you and I know you wouldn’t call if you weren’t sure but...”

Yuuri looked confused and getting more worried by the second while Victor groaned and got out of the bed. “Yes, yes. I know Chris. We will be there.” He said, hanging up and looking at Yuuri. “Get dressed. We have to go back to headquarters. Chris says he knows where our suspect is.”

Yuuri jumped out of the bed. “But how? I doubt Phichit had time to write the monitoring program.” He thought about it while he searched for some clean clothes. The jeans he had worn were still clean enough and he should have some clean t-shirts in Victor’s drawers. “Well if he didn’t go to bed perhaps, but he wouldn’t have had enough time to go back and slip it into the system.”

“No, it seems it was Jesús,” Victor explained while texting. “He was serious about me going to his mission but didn’t want to say more on the phone. We are going.”

“We? But he only called for you,” Yuuri panicked. “And what about Makkachin?”

“If Chris comes with us, I’ll ask Phichit. Would he mind? I can’t tell my usual sitter if we are supposed to be here.”

“Sure, Phichit loves animals,” Yuuri put his head through an old hoodie. It was good to lounge around and be lazy in, but a bit too threadbare to leave the flat. Still, it would have to do.

Victor looked at him, shaking his head and getting inside his closet. “That hoodie is going to fall apart,” He threw at him a white and red jacket. “Put that on.”

Yuuri took it, it seemed like the kind of jacket professional athletes wore when they competed at Olympics or any other event representing their country. Blushing slightly he shrugged off the old hoodie and put on the jacket, trying to not breathe in the scent of Victor’s cologne that clung to it. The blushed intensified when he saw how Victor was looking at him.

“Vitenka?” he asked, making Victor draw a sharp breath.

“I’m fine. Just finding I have a kink that I didn’t know about,” Victor muttered, shaking his head. “We don’t the have time, as much as that pains me. We have to go.”

“Phichit?”

“I texted him. He’ll finish writing the program and come for Makka before he has to be at the office. I’m leaving him my key hidden on the top of the door jamb.”

Yuuri nodded his agreement without saying anything. The lack of sleep and the abrupt waking call had left him off-kilter and he was trying to get back into it before everything made him have a meltdown. He didn’t have time to get stuck in a panic attack.

“We are going to have to get the bikes again.” Victor grimaced. “It’s the fastest and least conspicuous way. At least now it’s downhill.”

They left the flat as quietly as possible and rode back to the dock station they had left only a bit more than four hours ago. Yuuri could feel the exhaustion clinging to him like a second skin and he didn’t want to think about how Victor was feeling. The Russian seemed to know something was off because he caught Yuuri’s arm and reeled him in, putting his arms around him and squeezing.

“When all of this is finished we should take a vacation.” He murmured against Yuuri’s hair. “Just Makka, you and me, perhaps a beach, and a week or more of doing nothing.”

Yuuri nodded, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

**

It was too early for people to be out, and too late for the ones going back home after spending the night out—after all it was a weekday and most offers you got didn’t last until sunrise— and that meant the atmosphere was eerie. Like something could happen, good or bad, and it made Yuuri feel tense. Knowing they were doing something not exactly approved by Director Feltsman wasn’t helping either.

The hall was as dark and deserted as it had been a few hours ago, but this time, instead of going to the basement where nobody went, they had to sneak around the guards. It felt like they were trying to escape a prison or perhaps rob a bank. Chris showed up before they reached the stairs to the different levels and made signals to go with them.

“Not that way.” He whispered. “You are going to have to be a bit more subtle than going straight into the mission control room if you want to sneak into another time.”

“How are we going to do it then?” Yuuri asked. “That’s the only way to travel.”

“Not really.” Chris shrugged. “Come with me.”

The Swiss guided them through a dark corridor that led to the basement.

“Chris. Records is way too far from the mission room.” Victor said, seemingly unworried. Like he was just talking about the weather and making Yuuri’s nerves get even more brittle. “Do you need a map or something?”

“Shh, Vitya,” Chris demanded silence, turning his head to glare at them briefly without stopping. “Wait until we aren’t in a place where sound travels. You should know better. Hell, you should know, full stop. You were the one who told me about the acoustics of this place.”

Victor shrugged, unconcerned under Yuuri’s disbelieving look.

“It’s useful to know what is going on. Especially if you have a job like Chris’.” He whispered.

Yuuri shook his head but didn’t say anything. He had enough to worry about, with following the Swiss man without having a heart attack, or making so much noise that it would alert the guards to their presence. They went past Yuuri’s office, and the rest of the staff offices and rooms— Yuuri saw the door of the storage room where Phichit had connected to the network earlier, closed again, like nobody had been inside it moving between old boxes a few hours ago— to the end of the corridor where there was a door that led to the area where all the files were stored. They were trying to digitise all the documents before age destroyed them, but the budget was too low and the documents too many, to make it seem that their effort was going anywhere.

“Is there another way to reach the control room?” Yuuri asked in a low voice. They were far away enough nobody should hear them, but it was better to be safe. 

“Yes and no,” Chris said, opening the door quietly without turning his head. “Documents aren’t the only thing we have here, Yuuri. Haven’t you ever thought how weird it is everybody uses the same gate? When sometimes there are too many missions at the same time and it causes a bottle-neck jam that delays your mission for hours? Of course it rarely matters because they can make you wait and then send you earlier but still it happens.”

Yuuri frowned. He had never thought about it but it was true that it was a bit strange. Having more gates would mean doing things faster.

“I thought it was a security problem?” he ventured.

“Part security, part a communications problem,” Chris said, turning a corner between all the high shelves, making Yuuri and Victor hurry after him to not get lost in the labyrinth. “It’s easier to control just one door, of course, but it also has to have a certain width and other characteristics so people can use the time phones. One of the engineers tried to explain it to me but I was a bit too busy.”

“Too busy doing him?” Victor snorted smiling. Yuuri turned to look at him, the Russian had been uncharacteristically quiet and now he had a forced smile on his face. He had the feeling he was missing something.

“Just a tiny bit,” Chris turned smiling and unoffended. “But I got the gist. If you want to know the details I’m sure Phichit knows them.”

Yuuri nodded completely unsurprised. It seemed something his friend would know about even if he wasn’t a time engineer. Yuuri stopped, suddenly realising something.

“But when there aren’t people starting or finishing a mission the gate is closed.” He pointed out. “And nobody can go in or out. How can you still communicate? I’d say it’s because we call during office hours but your boyfriend has called you in the middle of the night.”

Chris stopped and smiled at him, nodding.

“Good question,” He said, approval thick in his voice. “If you ever get bored of this guy and fixing shit through Time come see me. Intelligence needs people like you.”

Yuuri blushed mumbling. He hadn’t said anything that wasn’t an obvious question. The blush intensified when he felt a pair of arms hug him.

“Hey, no stealing!” Yuuri could hear the pout in Victor’s voice before it changed to fondness. “I know my Yuuri is the best, but he is staying with us!”

Yuuri wriggled, getting out of the hug. His blush, which had started to fade slowly, went back in full force at seeing in Victor’s expression how proud he was, mixed with something else he was going to call fondness.

“Then?” he asked, trying to get them back to track and stop staring at him.

Chris snorted. “Then we have something else.” He continued walking and did another turn. “Before, we needed more space to get communications, we used a smaller door and it was set here, in the basement. I’m saying we, but this was in use since the organisation was created until the 90’s. I think we have had the door we use now since 1995, give or take. Anyway, calls are usually redirected to the big one, especially during working hours and that’s why they have two turns and there are people every day of the week during the day. But, if there is an emergency call during the night it goes through this door.”

Chris stopped at the end of the small corridor. There were bookshelves on both sides and another in front of him. For a moment Yuuri wondered if they were fake bookshelves like the ones in the old mystery books and movies but then, he realised Chris was looking at the corner, where there was a wooden door stuck between two bookshelves. The door was narrow, so much that a not very corpulent adult couldn’t pass without skimming the jamb, and looked extremely old, like something you would expect in a museum or an old centenary house. If Chris hadn’t been in front of it he wouldn’t have paid any attention to it.

“Do you really want us to go through that?” Yuuri asked. He could pass through, he was pretty sure but it looked like it was going to go to dust in any moment. “How do you know we won’t end in any other time and place? There isn’t any dialling there!”

He felt strong hands graspping his shoulders. “Breathe Yuuri, before you work yourself up,” Victor muttered in his ear, before switching his attention to Chris. “He has a point. I don’t mind going through although I’ll have to do it hunched. That door is tiny, but how are we going to be sure of where we are going?”

“Jesús called me. His mission in Madrid was a training one for a couple of new field agents but they ate something bad and they are sick. They are coming back first thing in the morning and Jesús is staying to finish the mission. You are going to wait here until they call in and when the contact is done this door will connect too. While the baby agents come back, you’ll go there and nobody will know.”

“So when the other door connects, this one does too?” Yuuri thought aloud. “And nobody has thought that the person you are looking for probably travels through it?”

“Of course we have. We thought about it the moment Chris mentioned this door,” Victor looked a bit offended and Chris didn’t look better. “But we haven’t been able to get him. And we have tried.”

“We have tried surveillance cameras because we can’t stay here all the time without making them realise we are aware what’s going on or making people realise there’s more to this area than just storing old mission documents.” Chris looked frustrated. “But it has been for nothing. We have been able to see shadows, but never a face. Either they know we are after them or they are paranoid.”

Yuuri blushed and looked down. He should have known they had already thought about it. It was obvious and now he had made himself look like an idiot.

“So we are still trying to figure out who he is,” Victor concluded, looking as frustrated as Chris. “Going back to the issue at hand, did Jesús give you a time? How we’re going to know it’s them? I don’t want to go in and end up in a different place.”

“So little trust,” Chris sighed theatrically. “He already warned his handler that the kids are sick and they are set to come back when the morning turn starts, so at 7 a.m. on the dot.”

Yuuri groaned. It was barely 5. “What are we going to do until then?” 

Victor seated against one of the bookshelves and leaned on it. “Rest or take a nap. We don’t know how long it’s going to take,” he explained before closing his eyes.

Yuuri looked dubious. In theory it was a good idea but he knew himself and there was no way he’d be able to sleep as nervous as he was. He was biting his lip, trying to figure out what to do again when Victor opened an eye.

“Try it at least, Yuuri,” he said softly.

“What about you, Chris?” Yuuri asked, trying to gain time before Victor took to pouting to convince him.

“I’m going from here to our floor. I’m allowed there and the guards won’t be too surprised to see me. They know we keep strange hours,” he shrugged. “I’ll text Jesús to wait for you. Good luck and rest while you can.”

Yuuri sighed, conceding defeat and sat next to Victor, leaning on him. He was sure he wasn’t going to fall asleep but his boyfriend’s breathing patterns were kind of soothing, and he  _ was  _ exhausted... so he found himself falling into sleep.

 

**

“Yuuri…” Victor said softly, in contrast with the hard way he was shaking his shoulder. “You have to wake up.It’s less than 10 minutes to 7.”

Yuuri yawned and rubbed his eyes before giving a start when he realised that they weren’t in Victor’s place. The nerves he had seemed to forget for a while came back stronger, making his hands shake a bit. He smiled at Victor who kept looking at him with a small frown on his face, before looking at the door.

“How will we know it is starting?” he asked.

“It makes a kind of metallic sound,” Victor shrugged. “Do you remember the old dial-up connections? Something similar.”

Well, at least that sound wasn’t something they would be able to ignore, Yuuri mused before asking another question. “And when it starts to sound we open the door and get in?”

“That’s it.” Victor smiled like it was all a school trip and Yuuri swallowed the impulse to glare at him. There wasn’t anything funny about it.

“So, we wait until then?” he asked, rubbing his face to try to wake up and hoping against hope his hands weren’t shaking.

“It should be any minute now,.” Victor said, looking around. “We didn’t take anything with us, did we?”

Yuuri looked around trying to remember. They hadn’t taken any bags, just their coats, wallets and keys. He told Victor who nevertheless looked around again.

“Okay, we are ready,” The Russian checked his watch. “It should be any minute.”

The wait lasted less than five minutes—Yuuri was sure of it; he had been checking the time compulsively on his phone— but it seemed to be endless. Finally the old sound Yuuri thought he would never hear again started with a metallic buzz and they approached the door.

“After you,” Victor said, opening the door with a mock reverence.

Yuuri breathed in, nervous. It wasn’t the first time he crossed a door and moved through time but this time it seemed more dangerous than all the missions before.

“Yuuri, we don’t have a lot of time,” Victor reminded him, putting a hand on his shoulder and pushing. “Go.”

Nodding, Yuuri went to the door. He was tall enough that he touched the jamb with his head and had to turn his body a bit so his shoulders didn’t hit the wood but it wasn’t too difficult to pass. The crossing itself was the same as the ones done in the control room, which made it all a bit anticlimactic. Suddenly he heard a noise, and turned around just in time to see Victor cross the door rubbing his head.

“I should have bent a bit more,” he complained, still rubbing his head and making Yuuri approach him to check he hadn’t really hurt himself.

“Tsk and you boast of your flexibility with Chris. If a door can defeat you I don’t want to know what happens in bed.” A male voice behind them made them turn.

The man was of average height with short dark hair, dark eyes and stubble covering his face but not hiding the ironic smile on his lips. He was leaning on a white tiled wall that looked like it belonged in a toilet. Yuuri turned around to see where they had come from and saw a stall. That one was new.

“In bed my flexibility is amazing. I’d prove it to you but I’m not in an open relationship,” Victor said pleasantly but narrowing his eyes. Yuuri had the feeling they didn’t get on that well. Victor and Jesús looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.

“Man, if we did that without Chris around to watch we’d be dead,” Jesús laughed before approaching Victor and pulling him into a hug.

“Hello Jesús. Did you send the kids back?” Victor asked, smiling after they moved apart.

“Yes,” Jesús rolled his eyes. “I have told them a thousand times that you don’t eat the noodles people serve on the streets at 4 a.m. Well, they’ll learn that lesson.”

“How old are they?” Yuuri asked picturing a teenager like Victor said it was done in Russia.

“They are in their twenties, but they just came from being agents in a small village in the middle of nowhere,” Jesús shrugged. “So in a sense they are kids. At least we are training them in pairs.”

“In any case, you aren’t here to hear about the agency’s baby officers.” He continued rubbing his hands. “Come with me. I think it’s better if I show you.”

“And the door?” Yuuri asked. Usually the door left them in hotel rooms that could be locked or places belonging to a family but a public toilet where everybody could enter seemed risky.

“Oh yeah, thanks,” Jesús put a hand in his pocket and took out a small key. “Let me lock it.”

He pushed the stall door closed and fixed the “out of order” sign that was crooked before locking it.

“All done!” he smiled, pocketing the key. “Now come with me, we are on the top floor of a music and media store and it’ll be crowded. If you lose me meet me in the ground floor.”

“Nobody has ever thought it’s weird that people come out from an out- of-order toilet?” Yuuri asked confused.

Jesús snickered. “Not really. This place used to be a well-known place for cruising before we decided to use it as the entrance for this time and place. People keep thinking it still is, so at most they’ll think we just had a threesome.”

Yuuri blushed. “Suddenly I’m glad Chris didn’t come with us.”

Jesus smacked him in the back. “You’d be surprised. We are very professionals when we work together. Though it’s rare it happens, even being in different directions they try to keep people in a relationship in different missions. I think it’s bullshit.”

Yuuri said nothing while they got out of the toilets, and trailed after Jesús and Victor who were chatting about Chris and other people whose names he didn’t recognise. It all sounded like gossip so he preferred to just walk behind them, trying to make sense of what was going on. He had the feeling he was missing something, but couldn’t remember what and it was frustrating.

**

“Okay, here we are.” Jesús pointed to the wall where there was a big graffiti. “I admit my Japanese is very basic but for what I got of it and the paint, it seemed up your alley.”

Yuuri got closer to the wall. It was part of an old dilapidated building which seemed close to falling down if the signs around it were to be believed. There were graffiti tags and old notices and papers stuck to it. But the one Jesús was pointing to was different. It looked like it wasn’t done with a can; it looked  _ painted _ like it was done with real paint and a brush, like some kind of artist finishing a portrait or like it was part of a calligraphy exhibition. It seemed to have taken a lot of time to write  _ Banzai _ so carefully, like not only the word but how it had been written had a meaning, but Yuuri couldn’t figure out what it was.

“This looks like it belongs in a museum. Probably not even a modern art one,” Victor muttered. “Not on a wall in a building in the middle of Spain. _ ” _

“That’s what I thought,” Jesús shrugged. “It could be some anime fan thinking they were being clever but I doubt it. The paint looks out of place and for the looks of it, it was painted in the last month. There’s barely dirt over it.”

Yuuri kept looking at it. The text wasn’t anything he could pinpoint but it looked like something he should remember. He just couldn’t figure out where: it could be in a museum, an old textbook… for all he knew it could be from a Hasetsu street sign. It wasn’t the meaning of the words— they were words used to show enthusiasm and also in certain formal moments— but something else he couldn’t figure out.  It didn’t make sense as a graffiti in Yuuri’s opinion—not that he was an expert on it in any case— but he couldn’t say why it didn’t make sense either.

“Are there any surveillance cameras around?” Victor asked, looking around.

“Yes, but they don’t point to this corner.” Jesús grimaced. “That’s why the wall is so full of shit, kids can come and paint it and no camera will see their faces.”

“So we don’t have anything new,” Victor groaned, rubbing his face and looking extremely frustrated. “We just know he came here. Is there any chance your sick trainees were because of them?”

“Nah, that was them being idiots,” Jesús shook his head. “I’ll finish their mission and go home in a day or so. It’s a pity, I was looking forward to have free time to go to Pride.”

Victor perked up.

“Pride? Did you say Pride?”

“Madrid’s pride started yesterday and it lasts until Sunday. It’s smaller than what we have in our time but it’s still fun and I wanted to go. Another time I guess,” He shrugged. “We have things to do.”

 

“You didn’t come for this did you?” Victor asked “I mean a graffiti isn’t enough for a mission, even one that looks a bit strange in the middle of Madrid in the 90’s.”

“No, in fact nobody had paid attention to it,” Jesús said. “We came to observe the beginning steps for how to adapt Spain to the European Monetary Union and ensure it didn’t end a failure of epic proportions. And to be fair, it was also to see how two guards from a small village in the middle of nowhere dealt with Madrid during Pride. I had to admit I wanted to come and have fun at Chueca, but it also worked to gauge how they would deal with unexpected situations and to see if they are going to be assholes or not.”

It seemed a weird and slightly dangerous method but Yuuri had to agree. To work in the agency you had to be open-minded, no prejudices could be brought and you had to learn to adapt to the unexpected. You never knew where you were going to end up or who you were going to work with. He stopped fidgeting for a moment when a thought came to mind.

“Victor, is there any possibility that this sign could have been somewhere else?” he asked feeling a bit self-conscious when the two other men looked at him. “I mean in any of the other missions.”

Victor put a finger over his lip, thinking. “That’s a very good question Yura and I don’t know.” Yuuri flushed slightly at the new nickname but didn’t say anything, he was sure Victor wasn’t even aware he had used it. Meanwhile Victor took out the phone from his pocket and took a picture before typing on it. “Let’s ask Chris if there was something like that when he went to Paris. He still should remember he had arrived from it an hour before us.”

Victor’s phone buzzed with a reply faster than expected. It seemed Phichit wasn’t the only one attached to his phone. The Russian frowned reading the reply. “He says he thinks he saw something similar in a wall close to Moulin Rouge. It was half erased so he can’t say for sure if it was the same word, but looked similar. He just remembers it because he thought it was a bit strange to have that in Paris in the 19th century.”

“Is there any way to check if it happened in any other mission?” Yuuri asked “And why here? Is there anything important about this mission?”

Jesús shrugged when Yuuri and Victor looked at him. “It’s a very run of the mill mission, the kind you give to agents that had just passed their exams. I wouldn’t even be here if I weren’t training those two kids.”

“Is it the kind of mission you give to training officers?” Yuuri asked. “I don’t think I had one like that now or last year.”

Victor and Jesús frowned. “I don’t think so?” Jesús said. “I rarely train agents. In fact I’m doing it this time as a favour because our teams are swapped and my boss thought the training would be easier if we didn’t have a language barrier. And I don’t mean speaking in English, I mean I worked in the police before getting into the agency and I speak cop. That’s mainly why Spaniards train the Spanish agents, we all come from one security force or another.”

“You are the first agent I’m training, you know that.” Victor said, refocusing Yuuri’s attention.

“So none of you are really sure if this mission should be used for training, but you are sure it is something an agent with little experience would do, right? Victor and Jesús nodded. “Like the one in Monte Carlo… where Director Feltsman didn’t know if he should send us or not.”

“Which we knew took longer than it should have taken. And Sara and Seung-gil should have been able to deal with it on their own,” Victor said aloud, trying to follow Yuuri’s line of thought.

“Like Pedro and Fran should have been able to deal with this one?”

“No, because as you said they’re in training and just starting if they are making mistakes like eating dodgy food.” Yuuri continued. “In fact it’s the kind of thing they use in our classes to remind us how a moment can mess with a mission.”

Yuuri didn’t want to admit it but a small part of him was glad to know he wasn’t the only one who messed up a mission. The biggest part was trying to put words to a nagging feeling he didn’t know how to explain.

“What are you thinking, Yuuri?” Victor asked. “What did you see?”

“I don’t know, but there’s something there,” he admitted. “I guess nobody saw the painter’s face right?”

“We don’t even know exactly when it was painted. But even if we did, there wasn’t a camera here.” Jesús reminded him. “If we were closer to our time there would be more cameras, and even if it was painted a month ago, I could try to get the file. But in this time where people rarely had internet in Spain, and digital sounds like a sci-fi movie, I don’t think so.”

Yuuri jolted before taking his phone frantic. “That’s it.” He said before looking for a contact. He started talking the moment the phone was answered. “Phichit I need you to go to Records. Talk to Chris about the other missions and look for the files. Phichit?”

Yuuri looked at the phone frowning. “Who are you and where is Phichit?” Yuuri could see from the corner of his eye that Victor and Jesús had gone from confused to tense in a moment. “Look, stop making this like a scene from a bad terror movie and put my friend back on.”

“He hung up,” Yuuri said to the other two. He was scared, but he was also pissed off as hell. He tried to breathe in. He wasn’t an action hero; he couldn’t just go back to their time and get Phichit if he didn’t know what was going on. He called Chris. “Chris?” he sighed in relief when the Swiss man replied. “Something is wrong. I just called Phichit and all I got was a creepy breathing sound like in a slasher movie. Uh, what? Yes, give me a moment.”

Yuuri motioned Victor and Jesús closer and turned on the hands-free setting.

“Now, Chris.” He said.

“All of you are listening?”

“Yes, dear,” Jesús replied ironically followed by Victor’s assent.

“Good thing you are,” the Swiss purred before his voice went completely serious. “Now. Why did you call Phichit?” 

“We were looking at the graffiti Victor sent you a picture of, and Jesús mentioned that the internet in this time isn’t spread in Spain. That’s the thing in common, Chris. All the missions were before the internet was used everywhere and everything could be checked faster. I wanted Phichit to check in Records. We have paper files from before the Internet era when not everything was digitised and…

“And you got the creepy breathy stalker,” Chris interrupted. “Come back. I don’t know what the fuck is going on but be careful.”

“I should finish the mission,” Jesús said.

“I want to tell you to come back, but you are supposed to be there, not Yuuri and Victor and I don’t want to talk to Yakov about this. Be careful.”

Jesús made a sound of agreement and took his phone out to text something. The sound at the other side of the phone told Yuuri Chris was the recipient.

“That too,” Chris’s voice sounded fond for a second. “Yuuri, Vitya, I’m gonna see if I can meet you down at the door but I can’t guarantee it. Be on your guard when you cross it.”

Chris said goodbye and hung up.

“How are we going to go back?” Yuuri asked pocketing his phone. “We can’t just call Leo and tell them to open the door.”

“You can’t, but I can,” Jesús said. “We just need to finish this mission before I call the mission room back and tell them to bring us to today in their year.”

“We should think the ‘creepy stalker,’” Yuuri could hear the quote marks in Victor’s voice, “will be following your and our movements. If you call and say you are coming back they’ll know we’re doing the same thing.”

“Then how? Time turners aren’t a thing no matter how much we wish they were,” Jesús snarked.

Yuuri thought about it. He had an idea but he wasn’t sure that he wasn’t saying anything completely stupid. He had never been an expert in time communications and networks —that was Phichit— but he had learnt a couple of things after living with him for years.

“When do you have your next check-in?” he asked. “They have to make contact to tell you if you’re staying alone or sending anyone else to continue the mission, right? We can use that time to go back.”

“Yuuuri!” Victor smiled, big-hearted and excited. “Great idea! Jesús will have to make the conversation last longer than a minute so we both can cross but it should work.”

The Spaniard was frowning and Yuuri felt his excitement die. He probably thought it was a stupid idea. “Sounds dangerous, but cool. The problem is they’re going to call me in the next 20 to 25 minutes and we’re too far. Unless…”

“Unless?” Yuuri asked hopeful.

“ _ Run _ . We’re going to take the metro and hope that for once it goes on time,” he snarled.

Luck was on their side and when they arrived to the closest station, the metro was arriving. Yuuri checked his watch impatiently while they waited for the three stops they had to endure. It didn’t stop too much at any station, which according to Jesús was a miracle on that line, but for Yuuri the time seemed to drag on. Finally, they reached Callao where they burst out of the train and started dodging people, running up the escalator and yelling at the poor tourists who weren’t following the unwritten rule of standing on the right side.

“We have less than five minutes but we are close,” he said, panting when they reached the square. Yuuri could see the sign of the store they had left a couple of hours ago at a distance that couldn’t be more than a hundred meters. They ran all the way there, dodging people, and took the lift to the last floor, running up the stairs that led to the toilets they had exited earlier. Victor and Jesús were still wheezing like they had run a marathon and Yuuri was trying to not jump from one foot to the other while he waited for the Spaniard to open the door. They were already getting close and it’d suck if they didn’t reach the door in time when they were so close. The Spaniard took out the key and was reaching the door when his phone started to ring. Looking at them he motioned them inside the toilet and closed the door behind them.

“I have to take it or they’ll know something is wrong,” he said while he thrust the key at Victor to open the stall door. “Hi? Yes, It’s me.”

Jesús motioned them to open the door and get inside. He was chatting with someone on the other side like nothing was happening. “Nah, man I’m breathing hard because I just had to rush out of the metro and find a place out of the way. I couldn’t take something that looks like a smartphone out in public in 1999.” He was saying while he took the keys from Victor and did a thumbs up. Victor mimicked saying thank you and Yuuri waved awkwardly. They couldn’t say goodbye properly and they couldn’t waste time either. Jesús nodded in understanding and motioned with his head to get it on. His conversation wouldn’t last that much longer. 

“After you, Yuuri,” Victor murmured and Yuuri just opened the stall where the door was. They didn’t have time to argue. He just hoped Victor had time to cross behind him. He felt the Russian touch his back and grab his shoulder. “Both or none, Yuuri” he whispered in his ear before they both crossed the time gate.


	9. Out of Time

Yuuri didn’t know what he was expecting to find when they crossed the gate: perhaps a lot of mercenaries or soldiers, or at least Phichit tied up with an evil person looming over him. Anything dangerous that told them the agency was in trouble and only they knew why. Anything except what they found.

“Nothing,” He muttered, looking around. The archives were as they had left them: all the files in the shelves and the tiny door just hidden in a corner like an afterthought. Even the dust seemed like it hadn’t been disturbed. It didn’t sit well with Yuuri. Everything was too quiet.

“Chris isn’t here.” Victor sounded worried for once, although he tried to smile reassuringly to Yuuri when he looked at him. “I don’t know if he knew we were coming so fast. Probably not, but still…”

“It’s another thing that adds up to all of this.” Yuuri sighed. “We need to go and figure out where Phichit is. He should have either been at his desk or in the storage room where we were… yesterday? Today? ”Yuuri frowned. Was it yesterday? Time travel was confusing. “Where we were at night.”

“It was yesterday, yes,” Victor was looking at him with a finger over his lip which meant he was considering every option. “Probably the first one. If he were at his desk, his co-workers and all Intelligence would have raised the alarm and nothing seems to be going on in this building.”

“That’s what’s getting me; why doesn’t anybody seem to know that something is happening?” Yuuri asked, frustrated.

“This is a big place, Yuuri. Unless someone doesn’t report for work, nobody really pays attention to what’s going on with their co-workers,” Victor sighed. “Unless Phichit said he was going to get a coffee and didn’t come back or something similar, his team won’t miss him until a few hours have passed. We all have meetings and appointments. And Phichit is a team leader, nobody would think about it twice if he isn’t at his desk for an hour or two.”

Yuuri sighed, his shoulders dropping. Victor was right. “What are we going to do? Go to the other room just like that?”

“Unless you have a better idea?” Victor grimaced. “I don’t use guns that often but I wouldn’t mind one right now.”

“But we don’t have them so we’re going to have to take that person by surprise,” Yuuri looked at the ceiling, squinting at the bright emergency light that brought the only light to that little corner. “Vitya, how well do you know this building? I have an idea.”

Yuuri moved closer to the Russian, explaining with quiet words and gestures what he thought and getting encouragement and nods from him. In any other situation, he’d expect Victor to be enthusiastic and making big gestures, but the man nodding seriously and giving his opinion, wasn’t his mentor or his boyfriend. The Victor Nikiforov, that was in front of him right then was the Star Agent, and for the first time, Yuuri didn’t feel himself lacking. In fact he felt like an equal. Like he  really could be a field agent. Not even an average one, but a  _ good one _ .

**

Yuuri walked down the aisles full of shelves. If his watch was right it was close to lunch and most of the staff in Records would be either be getting ready to have a break or were already on it. If he was right, and Phichit and his kidnapper were in the storage room where the Thai had found a back-up connection, they’d use that time to move him to a more secure place. He just had to reach them first. He fisted his hands to avoid showing they were trembling. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when he found Phichit, but he had to distract them until Victor could reach them. The emergency staircase the Russian was taking meant a detour, but trying to take them by surprise was their only option. They weren’t action heroes like in the movies, not really, and Yuuri didn’t even have police training, not like other agents. He left the archives quietly, trying to look calm and collected, and looked around, trying to hear anything. Nothing. Everybody had gone to lunch. Suddenly a door opened close to his end of the corridor and Yuuri could hear Phichit’s voice.

“Honestly, I’m just saying I can’t help you there. My speciality is networks, even communications; the internet. You don’t have anything like that and you can’t have it in your time!” The Thai sounded exasperated while he stumbled over the threshold, turning his head to glare to the other occupant of the room. He had his hands tied with a rope but leaving that aside, Yuuri couldn’t see anything that made him worry about his friend’s health.

“That’s what History says, but if nobody sees it, it won’t be known,” Yuuri froze. He knew that voice and he hoped he was wrong. “Like your phones. You know that anything that isn’t kept in Records, that isn’t named and written down doesn’t exist, and for once that will work out in our favour.”

The man crossing the door after Phichit with a  _ tantō _ in his hand was a bit older than the one he had said goodbye to in Russia just a little over 24 hours ago, but he was unmistakably the same person.

“Minami Kenjirou,” Yuuri said, his voice harsher that he had expected, making the other man turn his head. He looked closer to his age and his face showed a few wrinkles but the main difference was his expression. Where the Minami he had met in the past had always been exhaustingly enthusiastic, this older version looked colder and harsher. 

“Katsuki-san,” A cold terrible smile appeared on Minami’s face. A tiny part of Yuuri wondered what had happened to Minami to become this way. Who had broken the enthusiastic idealistic young boy he had met in two different times... but a bigger part was more worried about the  _ tantō _ in Minami’s hand and what could happen now. 

“Why are you here, Minami?” Yuuri pressed, approaching them warily. He didn’t want to startle Minami. His short sword looked extremely sharp and Phichit didn’t have any way to defend himself. “ Not only are you not supposed to travel to your future, but coming here and kidnaping? What about the rest?”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting  _ you, _ but it makes things easier I suppose.” Minami continued, walking closer to Phichit who looked from one to the other with a frown. “You know what happens after my time, Katsuki-san. The Emperor rose and our country became great, only to lose everything after the Second World War; humiliated by the Americans. We deserved better.  _ Our people _ deserved better. So I told the Emperor.”

Yuuri shook his head, suppressing the urge to facepalm. It was madness, it sounded like a bad Indiana Jones movie.

“That’s against everything we swear as Time Officers. You don’t change Time.” Yuuri was angry. He was furious. “You don’t think any of us haven’t wanted to change anything? From a small humiliation to a big historic event and save people?. But Time has already passed and It. Must.  Not. Be. Changed.”

Yuuri gritted his teeth when Minami clapped his hand mockingly against the one holding the sword’s hilt. “Very beautiful. You sound like my parents. But I know better. It can and must be changed. You just need to plan it very carefully. And I did.”

“All the missions, all the things changed that didn’t make sense…” Phichit murmured. “You were testing if it worked.”

Minami turned his attention back to Phichit.

“This Organisation employs smarter people than in my time. Not that I doubted it, knowing Katsuki-san.” Minami looked to Yuuri, turning his back to Phichit. “I planned and tested it and now I have the knowledge and the money; I just need the means. But after today, I’ll go back and change Japan for the better.”

“Not if I can stop you. And Phichit won’t help you either,” Yuuri replied looking at the sword, perhaps he had a chance to avoid it... “What are you going to do about it?”

Minami looked at him, disappointed, before sighing. “I wish you could see reason and understand that I do it for our people Katsuki-san. But I’ll kill you both if I have to. It doesn’t matter, when I change time you’ll be alive again.”

Phichit’s sound of distress cut through Yuuri’s mind. He didn’t know if Time worked like Minami thought—Time physics had always been confusing for him and he had barely passed the part he needed to learn for his entrance exams— but he wasn’t going to stand still and try it. Just in case. With a fast look to Phichit, he ran to Minami while the Thai jumped him, making Minami stumble and drop his  _ tantō.  _ Yuuri kicked it as far as he could from them but that meant he didn’t have time to defend himself from Minami’s fist. The hit to his jaw was painful and he blocked the next one by crossing his arms over his face; he had learnt self-defense, but he had never thought he’d have to use it at all, especially in a situation like this..

Between dodging and blocking the blows that were coming at him, he saw that Phichit had gone to find the sword and was cutting the rope binding him. Yuuri blocked another hit and looked at Minami. The younger man was panting, tired but seemed determined to continue. Yuuri was tiring, but he could last a bit more. He hoped. He tried to hit Minami, but the younger man dodged it, showing his teeth.

“What I wonder is why you wrote Banzai on the places you went,” he asked, pushing Minami after he hit him once. “Why show your hand?”

“What hand?” Minami replied between panting. “I was trying to see if anyone would get it. A word said as a formal ritual for the Emperor seemed fitting. Later on I learnt about banzai charges and I decided it was a signal.”

Minami stopped just a couple of steps of distance from Yuuri who looked at him, tense. “But now it’s time to finish this, Katsuki-san,” Minami put a hand inside his sleeve and took out a sword exactly like the one Yuuri had kicked away. “I admired you, but as they say, you should never meet your heroes. Again, in this case.”

Yuuri looked at Phichit and Victor behind Minami. He didn’t know how they had moved so silently or when Victor had arrived but before Minami could charge at him, both of them had jumped over Minami and restrained him.

“Fuck you,” Phichit swore while Victor handcuffed Minami. “You asshole with delusions of grandeur.”

Yuuri grabbed Phichit before he could kick Minami. He was trembling, probably  from the exhaustion and partly from the beginnings of an adrenaline crash, but he didn’t care. He was so relieved he could weep.

“You’re alright,” He muttered against Phichit’s shoulder while he hugged him.

“Shh, Yuuri,” His friend hugged him tighter. “I am. I may spend my time behind computers but I can hold my own.”

Yuuri laughed a bit wetly before he got himself under control and looked at where Victor was making Minami stand.

“What is going to happen to him?” He asked.

Victor shrugged. “For now I’m taking him to Yakov, but he’ll probably be sent to prison. Either in his time or even further away. He won’t stay here for sure.”

“In his time, he committed treason,” Yuuri pointed out. “That probably would mean his death.”

“Technically, he committed treason here too, Yuuri. He went against everything he had sworn to uphold.” Victor replied coldly. “It’ll be up to them to decide. But all choices have consequences and he knew it.”

Yuuri stayed with Phichit after Victor dragged Minami away, making sure his friend was alright, being called a mother hen for his efforts when he tried to take him to the infirmary. Half an hour later Victor called him on his phone.

“Yuuri, Yakov wants to see you.”

Yuuri gulped but said goodbye to Phichit who by then had gone back to his own floor and had been surrounded by his team—the rumour mill hadn’t taken long in spreading what had been going on in the basement— and acclaimed like a hero.

The route from that floor to Director Feltsman’s office on the floor below was shorter than Yuuri would have liked, but long enough that his mind could come up with at least ten scenarios of what terrible things the Director was going to tell him. He relaxed slightly when he entered and saw Victor looking back at him with a big heart-shaped smile. The news he had to receive wouldn’t be so bad if Victor was smiling like that.

“Firsts of all Katsuki, congratulations,” Director Feltsman offered his hand and Yuuri rushed to shake it. “Not everybody can keep their calm and think it through when they encounter a situation like we had. Especially if it’s their first time.”

Yuuri nodded without saying anything. He had been anything  _ but _ calm, but he wasn’t going to contradict the Director.

“You were in training, but that ends today,” Yuuri paled. Had he done it so poorly he wasn’t even going to take his exams? “I talked to Vitya as your mentor, and Jesús and Chris who can act as examiners, and they all concur that you have passed all the requirements to be considered a full time field agent. You had already passed your written exams the last time, and it hasn’t been a year since then, so you don’t have to retake them. Congratulations. You’ll report to your new department head tomorrow and he’ll assign you a desk.”

Yuuri felt like everything had passed like a blur. He had to read the evaluation Chris and Jesús had done as his examiners, and the one Victor had done too (although it had less weight because he was his mentor), before signing his own paperwork accepting his new position. Yuuri was sure he was going to wake up any moment; that Minami had knocked him out and he was unconscious on the basement floor, because this was the kind of wonderful thing that never happened to him.   
  
When he finished, he shook Director Feltsman’s hand again and left the office completely dazed. “I told you that you could do it,” Victor told him when they were in the corridor and Yakov’s door had closed after them, enveloping him in a hug. “You just needed to believe in yourself like I believe in you.”

Yuuri sighed into the hug, trying to relax. “I just can’t believe it. It doesn’t seem true.”

Victor moved, frowning. “Why not?”

“Because I’m just me, Vitya. Nothing special. Today I had luck,” Yuuri shrugged helplessly. “I don’t deserve it.”

Victor’s frown deepened before looking around.

“What you did wasn’t luck Yuuri. You used your training and your brain to figure out what was happening. You figured out something that Chris and I had been working on for months without success.” He replied angrily, his eyes flashing. “And do you think you got it only based on today? Of course it was the final exam but all the missions before? All the ones you did on your own? You think that didn’t count? That nothing of these last months were enough?”

Yuuri looked confused at Victor. He hadn’t expected him to get so angry about something that was just the truth. 

“But I’m just saying the truth, Victor,” He replied, looking worriedly at Victor who had his head down, his bangs covering his face. “I did more missions when I worked under Celestino and I failed my final mission and the certification. You know it, you were there. You were the one who had to fix that mission.”

His last words were surprisingly bitter. Yuuri supposed one day he’d get over it but it wouldn’t be soon. He reached for Victor’s face, moving his bangs aside to look at his face. The Russian looked close to tears but Yuuri was sure they wouldn’t fall. Not in a public place where anyone could see them. Victor moved his hand with a harsh movement looking completely angry.

“You failed last time because you lacked confidence.” He replied, looking at his eyes and fisting his hands. “I looked at your reports and all of them showed you didn’t believe what you were doing and always did what Celestino told you. We don’t need robots in our department, Yuuri. We need agents who know when to act and which lines not to cross. You showed that in the last three months.”

Victor started moving through the corridor leaving Yuuri behind. He tried to get over his shock and rushed over. He wasn’t going to let Victor leave without him.

“Vitya,” he said when he was close. “I’m sorry but...”

“But you believe what you said.” Victor looked at him, anger slowly melting into sadness. “I can’t change that. You have seen not only what I think, but Chris and Jesús’s opinions too. None of us were lying. I don’t know what else to say.”

Yuuri looked at him, helpless. He knew he could tell Victor he was right but he’d be lying if he told him he believed that.

“I know what you are saying but knowing and believing it...” He shrugged. “I’m trying but you’ll have to be patient with me, Vitya.”

Victor kissed him without caring who could see them in a corridor in the middle of a workday and making Yuuri flush.

“I can have all the patience in the world, solnyshko.” Victor sighed, still looking a bit sad. “I can believe in you even when you don’t, but I can’t fight your battles for you.”

Yuuri looked at the floor, thinking before reaching a decision and clasping his hand. He had felt today how it was to be Victor Nikiforov’s equal. It had been a giddy and exciting feeling. An addictive one, like the Russian himself. And something he didn’t want to give up.

“But you can have my back while I fight my battles, right?” Yuuri asked, smiling slightly when he felt Victor’s hand squeeze his own.

“That I can do.” The Russian answered his smile with one of his own before resuming his walk to the exit, taking Yuuri with him. “Now, things you should know before you start missions on your own…”

Yuuri laughed slightly, shaking his head. He had done it.


	10. Epilogue: No Time like the Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end. Thank you so much for reading. More notes at the end to not spoil anything :P

_ Two years later. _

The celebration had lasted for hours. It had been great to see his family and all their friends and spend the day with them, but part of Yuuri had been grateful when the time had come and they had left without saying goodbye. They didn’t have to worry. All the people in the restaurant were drinking and having fun and Makkachin was already at Phichit’s flat sleeping after a ton of food. 

They were a bit too giddy—both because of the alcohol and their own happiness— to open the door to their flat on the first try. From the window in the dining room Yuuri could see a glimpse of the lights of Sagrada Familia but soon he got distracted by familiar lips over his skin.

“Yuuri…” Victor whispered over his skin before moving to his lips. “Husband.”

Yuuri replied by kissing him, letting his hands roam until they had to break apart to breathe.

“Do you know what I want to do again?” Victor asked, smiling self-consciously.

Yuuri had a few ideas of his own, but he knew that in that moment he’d agree to whatever Victor wanted. “What?”

“Dance with you again,” Victor fumbled with his phone until a jazzy song filled the quiet room.

“Vitenka, you sap,” Yuuri shook his head fondly while Victor threw his phone lightly into the sofa, but grabbed him when he moved closer, making their bodies touch.

They swayed to the rhythm of the music, inserting steps and turns between kisses and just keeping each other close. Goading each other to see but not really touch, making the dance becoame its own type of seduction. Yuuri wasn’t sure who was seducing who, but it didn’t matter. He had lived enough time with Victor that they were starting to meld together, becoming something bigger than the two of them had been on their own and priceless for it. With its ups and its downs. Like their jobs. Like their lives.

Art by Twigs

Soon the playful seduction became more serious, the laughter more sparse, changed for moans and sighs. Their dance taking them all the way from the dining-room to their room without them stopping from touching each other with their hands and lips, pulling at the clothes which were in the way to touch skin.

Yuuri stopped where he was in the middle of the bedroom when he saw Victor finish undressing himself and fell on the bed. On _their_ bed—after more than a year living together, it still surprised Yuuri sometimes— before looking at him expectantly. Before the Russian opened his mouth he got rid of the rest of his clothes and crawled to him, kissing him hotly, hovering over him in a position that was more  awkward than sexy, but from the way Victor was looking at him he liked it.

“Husband.” He murmured just to see Victor’s eyes widen and his face flush with pleasure. “You like it, don’t you?” His voice was full of playful amusement. Yuuri was aware he was saying an understatement—the Russian had been calling him Husband nearly non-stop since the ceremony had ended— but it was heady seeing his reaction to being called that; seeing how much that label mattered to Victor.

“Sap.” He bowed his head and caressed Victor’s neck with his tongue, drawing shivers.

“You already knew it,” Victor replied between moans. “Yuuri,  _ please.” _

_ “ _ If you beg so prettily, Vitenka,” Yuuri kissed him before moving to grab the lube, showing it and getting a nod. “Like this or do you want to move?”

Instead of answering, Victor put a pillow under his back and fidgeted until he made himself comfortable. Yuuri moved to kiss him, before he uncapped the lube and started to get Victor ready. It wasn’t the first time—nor the tenth— that they did this, but Yuuri kept the same careful approach he had used all the other times, no matter how much Victor complained that he wasn’t going to break. He moved slowly looking at his face for signs of discomfort, letting him adjust and having to stop from time to time just to kiss the Russian who looked at him like he was a priceless treasure.

“Yuuuuuuuri,” Victor whined. “Enough.”

Yuuri kissed him swiftly before taking out his fingers and sinking into Victor’s body at a pace that left the Russian complaining it was too slow. When Yuuri was completely inside, and he was sure Victor was fine, he started moving deeply, trying to get as many sounds as he could from Victor, looking for that angle that made him scream. It took a few tries before he found it and started moving faster, his moans accompanying Victor’s. Yuuri bit Victor’s lip and leaned over to look down and see his husband touching himself at the same pace as his own thrusts. Victor looked so hot, Yuuri couldn’t help moving faster, making both of them rise, get more frantic, while the room filled with moans and breathed names until it all collapsed. Yuuri left himself fall over Victor, moving a bit to touch their lips together, still breathing too harshly to kiss deeply. 

“Solnyskho moy,” Victor murmured against his skin while Yuuri tried to get his breath back. “Husband.”

Yuuri laughed “Will you ever get tired of calling me husband?”

“Never!” Victor replied, less dramatically that Yuuri had expected. “Would you?”

“Would I get tired of you calling me husband?” Yuuri teased him. “I prefer the other nicknames.”

“Yuuri!”

“Or my name, yes,” Yuuri smiled moving so he was cuddled against Victor’s side. At the very least, one of them should move and get something to clean themselves, but it could wait a few more minutes. “Will I ever get tired of calling you husband? Not really, but I prefer calling you Vitya. To show the world we already have this.”

Yuuri moved his hand to show the ring on it, identical to the one on Victor’s hand except for the engraving inside it. But even that could be linked together to be something else made of both parts. Like they did. 

“We can have both.” Victor’s sleepy words interrupted Yuuri’s thoughts. He looked up to him. The Russian already looked half-asleep, which made Yuuri chuckle and get up shaking his head.  If they didn’t get cleaned up, they’d regret it in the morning, and Victor didn’t seem like he was going to help. 

He stretched before going to the bathroom to get clean and retrieve a warm wet towel to clean Victor up. When he went back he shook his head at seeing his husband completely asleep. Not even being cleaned roused Victor completely, earning only a sleepy murmur that made Yuuri chuckle fondly. Throwing the towel to the bathroom floor—knowing Victor would complain about it in the morning but too sleepy to care— Yuuri got back into the bed to cuddle the Russian who moved close to him, searching for warmth. Yuuri smiled lightly at the gesture, committing it to memory. These last two years as a field agent had taught him that Time stayed the same, but the little things—the ones that made everybody’s lives; the ones that tangled with other small moments creating strong ropes, but that would never appear in the History books— changed and those were the things that were more important keeping. Yuuri sighed, closing his eyes. Tomorrow he had a mission—one that for once included Victor too, which has been happening more often lately to their delight— and after that they had fifteen glorious days for a honeymoon. Victor, Makkachin and him on a beach, just like the Russian had promised a long time ago.

Yuuri couldn’t wait for it. He pictured it, falling asleep with a smile on his lips. __

 

_ Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of. (Benjamin Franklin) _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The music Yuuri and Victor dance to is [Jamie Cullum's "Don't Stop the Music." ](https://youtu.be/S0z1Mo7O6dE).  
> You can also see Stephane Lambiel skating to it [here](https://youtu.be/s6rw5svR5PA)
> 
> Again thank you so much for reading. Please let me know if you liked it, enjoyed or anything. I have been working on this fic for months and I'd love to know what you think about it.
> 
> And I can't leave without thanking again my wonderful artists who did wonderful art with very little time. Go see their art to their tumblrs: [Twigs](https://twiglightdragon.tumblr.com/post/171137976665/do-you-know-what-i-want-to-do-again-victor). Pome


End file.
